| |OCTOBER 20239As per top corporate executive, Novo Nordisk India Pvt. Ltd, the local affiliate of Danish pharmaceutical multinational Novo Nordisk, is in early talks with Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd to expand their manufacturing partnership."It is a formidable partnership," managing director Vikrant Shrotriya said, noting it has stood the test of time over three decades. "I believe they have been a very reliable partner. So, we have been evaluating on expanding our partnership with them," Shrotriya said in an interview."We are considering whether this (existing capacity) is sufficient. Probably, there is time before we might be working on an expansion," he said. However, Shrotriya did not share any details on the ongoing discussions.Torrent Pharmaceuticals now manufactures insulin for Novo Nordisk in Gujarat using crystals sourced from Denmark.Discussions have started at a time the company is looking to launch its weight-loss drug, Wegovy, in India by 2026. The companies have initiated the pre-launch process, including applying for regulatory approvals as per livemint."There are always plans, and we are trying it as early as possible. We are working to create the pre-launch processes in terms of creating awareness. We are building capacity and working with doctors to create awareness, working on training courses, so that they understand obesity better," he said. "Once we are done with awareness, and penetrating India's insulin market, we will be finalizing obesity product launches as well."Wegovy made its debut in the United States in 2021 and was afterwards launched in several European nations, including the United Kingdom. The business claimed that it might not introduce the medicine in underdeveloped countries since it couldn't match demand in rich countries. POHitGen Inc. established a collaboration with The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), a public-private partnership dedicated to the development of novel therapeutics through open-access research. HitGen will evaluate under-represented targets identified by SGC using their DNA-encoded library (DEL) technology platform, especially OpenDEL. The screening datasets will be posted to a publicly accessible portal to facilitate drug discovery, and ML experts from around the world will model the data and make predictions about new active molecules that will be experimentally tested at SGC as part of the Target 2035 initiative.AHitGen is a world leader in DEL technology development and applications to early-stage small molecule drug discovery. Its platform has approximately 1.2 trillion small molecules created using DEL technology, and the effectiveness of the screening process has enabled HitGen to facilitate drug development initiatives for numerous organizations worldwide.OpenDEL is a self-service DEL kit with over 3 billion compounds, which enables users to explore DEL selection campaigns without revealing the target identity. Under the guidance of the manual and operating instructions, users can utilize OpenDEL to conduct affinity screening experiments against protein targets in their own laboratories. HitGen can provide upstream and downstream technical support, as per pharmabiz. PONOVO, TORRENT TO EXPAND PARTNERSHIPSGC & HITGEN SIGN RESEARCH COLLABORATION FOR DRUG DISCOVERYTOP STORIES
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