“At this time when governments across the globe are finding it difficult to keep healthcare costs under control, such collaborations between leading healthcare providers and pioneering research institutes are of utmost importance since it will dramatically reduce the distance between research to treatment and thereby reduce cost.” said Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, Vice Chairman, MD & Group CEO, Narayana Health. He further added “This is a unique collaboration between two organizations that span across two extreme ends of health care – from basic research to healthcare delivery. We are extremely hopeful that such collaborations will lead to the eventual development of affordable therapeutic and diagnostic products, which would benefit the large patient population in India across multiple unmet needs.”
Dr G Suresh Kumar, Senior Principal Scientist, Chemistry Division and Head, Business Development Group, CSIR-IICB, who was instrumental in forming this collaboration, observed “CSIR-IICB has been actively working on various diseases of national interest and have developed therapeutic and diagnostic candidates in areas like Kala-Azar, Asthma, Visceral Lieshmanisasis, Infectious diseases and various forms of Cancer. In all of these endeavors we felt the need for partners who are directly involved with the patients. The collaboration with NH will fill this much needed gap in our research. This partnership will help us to better characterize a disease that is prevalent in Indian population, say a new drug-resistant strain of bacteria, and come up with therapeutic agents against it.”
Dr Biju Jacob, who heads Healthcare Innovations & Research of Narayana Health Group of Hospitals, stated that “We will co-host a highly specialized team through this alliance to provide the necessary scientific and clinical expertise in administering patient-oriented research and appropriately tracking results. We will add value in this world-class endeavour by creating an ecosystem for clinicians and scientists work together. Research that takes place at the bench often do not reach the bedside due to clinical considerations that were not envisaged by the researcher. Such collaboration will help the clinicians from NH and the researchers from CSIR-IICB to interact with each other and share their experience.” He further added “This will herald a new model of collaboration between clinics and research labs which is hitherto unexplored. We hope much such collaboration will follow in future, that will foster translational research in the country.”
Under this memorandum, the two organizations will work on multiple disease areas of national interest, ranging from pathogenic infections to oncology, metabolic disorder, maternal and child health to name a few. Whenever necessary, the two organizations will jointly raise funds to support the research.
Prof Siddhartha Roy, Director, CSIR-IICB summarized “Through the tireless works of Dr Devi Shetty, NH has established itself as an abode for affordable healthcare whereas CSIR-IICB has been serving its mandate for working on diseases of national interest. Synergy between the complementary capabilities of two such organizations is bound to yield results that would benefit the Nation. I encourage the scientists and clinicians from both organizations to interact scientifically with each other and build programmes that are befitting to the mandates carried by these two great organizations.”
About Narayana Health Hospitals
For millions across the world, NH Health City is the panacea for all ills. Recently re-christened as Narayana Health (NH), it is one of India's largest and world's most economical healthcare service providers. NH is set to emerge as a global industry model for its ability to reconcile quality, affordability, scale, transparency, credibility and sustainable profitability. With 120 major surgeries performed everyday and 80,000 OPD patients attended per month, Narayana Health offers super-specialty tertiary care facilities across areas of specialization including Cardiac Surgery, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Vascular, Endovascular services, Nephrology, Urology, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Paediatrics, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Psychiatry, Diabetes, Endocrinology, Cosmetic Surgery and Rehabilitation, Solid Organ Tansplants for Kidney, Liver, Heart and Bone Marrow transplant as well as General Medicine. Famous for its cost-cutting approach in many ingenious ways, NH has been ranked 36th among "WORLD'S 50 MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES" by Fast Companies in 2012. We have also been a proud recipient of Frost & Sullivan India Healthcare Excellence Awards 2012 in the category Healthcare Service Provider Company of the Year and FICCI Health Care Excellence Award 2012 for "Addressing Industry Issues”.
About Indian Institute of Chemical Biology
Indian Institute of Chemical Biology (IICB) was established in 1935 as the first non official centre in India for biomedical research and was included within the aegis of CSIR in 1956. It was renamed and reoriented as an Institute of Chemical Biology in 1982. CSIR-IICB today is engaged in research on diseases of national importance and biological problems of global interest, employing sophisticated state-of-the-art technology in keeping with the rapid and unprecedented momentum that life science research has gained globally over the last 50 years. This institute is the first chemical biology institute in the world and explores chemistry of life through chemical tools. The scientific staffs have expertise in a variety of areas including chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology, chemical biology, molecular biology, neurobiology and immunology which promotes productive interdisciplinary interaction. CSIR-IICB has developed an oral vaccine for cholera, herbal products for controlling gastric ulcer, empirical treatment for vitiligo, diagnostic kits for malignancy and hormonal disorders, fungal enzymes of industrial importance, radiopharmaceuticals for evaluation of the functional status of renal and hepatobiliary systems and a device for early detection of Parkinson's disease. Although the strength of CSIR-IICB has always been basic biomedical research, during the last decade emphasis is being given on goal oriented research directed towards commercial exploitability. Efforts are now on to convert the knowledge gained over the years through high quality basic research into wealth.
