C Chitti Pantulu

Hyderabad: Perlecan Pharma, the integrated drug development company set up by Dr Reddy’s Laboratories in September 2005, has dropped a second blockbuster candidate from its drug development portfolio.

“Two new chemical entities (NCEs) have been dropped and work on two more is going through some processes,” G V Prasad, vice chairman & CEO, Dr Reddy’s confirmed to DNA Money without naming the candidates.

According to sources,work on RUS 3108, a cardiovascular drug, has been discontinued. Earlier it was reported that Perlecan had dropped DRL 11605 for treatment of diabetes and obesity, which the company did not deny.

However, Prasad said work on the AMPK, (DRL 16536) platform was going on satisfactorily. Being tested in the late-stage preclinical phase, AMPK is an anti-diabetic drug candidate.

According to analysts RUS 3108 had shown up safety concerns and the molecule had appeared likely to be dropped. This leaves only two candidates with Perlecan against the four it started off with.

Perlecan’s brief was to engage in clinical development through Phase II and out-license NCE assets it received from Dr Reddy’s. Further it was to build on its initial pipeline through a combination of in-licensing and alliancing opportunities.

It is managed by an independent board and an executive management team.

The confirmation by Prasad comes in the backdrop of speculation that investors in Perlecan, Citigroup Venture and ICICI Venture Funds, which pumped in $22.5 million each, have been looking to exit from the venture which has not shown much progress to date.

According to some, Dr Reddy’s is now looking to buy out the two investors and develop the two new candidates entirely on its own to take the company public after some years. However, Prasad did not want to be drawn into a discussion on the subject.

“We don’t have anything to share on this now,” he said. However, speaking about the overall new drug discovery and development programme, Prasad observed failures were natural to this segment.

“We have had some attrition and challenges on this front and it will take some time to show results,” he said.

Dr Reddy’s had said it had eight drug candidates under development. However, Prasad indicated there were only six left in the portfolio now.

Source : DNA