Zydus Cadila & Karo Bio of Sweden sign research agreement for a novel drug to treat inflammatory diseases

Cadila Healthcare Ltd has announced that the Company and Karo Bio of Sweden, a drug discovery and development Company specialising in nuclear receptors have initiated a three year strategic collaboration in the area of drug discovery and development. Both Companies will collaborate to discover and develop novel, selective glucocorticoid receptor (GR) modulators for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.

Glucocorticoids are used to treat many different inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowels disease, psoriasis and asthma which together represent a market potential of over USD 10 bn. These powerful anti-inflammatory agents with long term use could, however, lead to the development of unwanted side effects like obesity, diabetes and osteoporosis. Thus, there is a great need for new, selective glucocorticoids devoid of one or more of these side effects.

Karo Bio will leverage its expertise in nuclear receptor drug discovery including structural biology, drug design and compound characterisation. Zydus Cadila will leverage its expertise in carrying out a focused drug discovery and development programme, starting from pre-clinical candidate selection, tiling of the Investigational New Drug Application and undertaking pre-clinical studies and human clinical trials. Both parties will equally share risk and rewards for the collaboration programme.

Speaking on the joint research programme, Mr. Pankaj R Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Zydus Cadila said, "We are excited about this collaboration with Karo Bio. One of the key research areas of focus at our Zydus Research Centre is to develop novel GR modulators that are devoid of side effects. By combining the strengths of both, Karo Bio and Zydus Cadila, we should be able to design and develop novel molecules, which would eventually replace currently available steroids for treatment of inflammatory disorders. This joint research endeavour will help address an unmet healthcare need."

The glucocorticoid receptor mediates both the anti-inflammatory effects and the side effects. Karo Bio and Zydus Cadila have now initiated an intensive research programme aimed at discovering selectively acting glucocorticoids. The design of new selective compounds will be based on Karo Bio's detailed knowledge about structural biology aspects of ligand-receptor interactions.