New Drug Discovery | Natco Pharma

New Drug Discovery (Medicinal Chemistry division):

Natco works for the patient. The core philosophy of Natco’s drug discovery program is to focus on the unmet needs of patients, especially in areas of cancer and make specialty medicines available for the needy. Natco addresses these unmet needs through innovation and discovery of novel drug candidates for mutated forms of cancer, which can be promising clinical candidates. This is achieved by a full spectrum of development capabilities in medicinal chemistry, targeted molecular modeling through computer aided drug design, process chemistry, analytical chemistry, In-vitro screening, Tox and bio-analytical evaluation, preliminary in-vivo screening, drug dosage form and formulation development. This research has resulted in the development of promising new chemical entities (NCEs) for Mutated forms of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), lung cancer, head and neck cancer, breast cancer in preclinical and clinical stage with more NCEs in the pipeline.

New Drug Delivery Systems (NDDS):

The NDDS division at Natco Research Centre was established with the sole objective of developing complex drug delivery formulations like liposomes, nanoparticles or micro particulate systems. These delivery systems help address the formulation problems associated with poorly soluble drugs as well as improve the safety and efficacy of the drugs. In addition to the development of complex generic formulations, the division also uses novel technologies to evolve new strategies to meet the challenges of poorly soluble or poorly absorbable new chemical entities (NCEs) developed in-house. The division has successfully developed pegylated liposomal doxorubicin which is already in the Indian market. It has a rich pipeline of several formulations at different stages of development.

Targeted Molecular Modelling & Rational Drug Design:

Natco Research Centre is engaged in the development of new chemical entities (NCEs) through various molecular modelling and rational drug designing techniques. The present molecular modelling facilities in Natco encompass all theoretical methods and computational techniques to model or mimic the behavior of molecules. Our scientists use various approaches such as target identification & validations, molecular docking studies, structure based drug designing, lead identifications, lead optimization, homology modelling, QSAR, COMFA, etc. for development of NCEs. Natco works with the process of finding a new drug against a chosen target for a particular disease using rational drug designing approach. Innovations have led to the automation of synthesis (combinatorial synthesis) and testing (high-throughput screening). Rational drug design starts with a validated biological target and ends up with a drug that interacts with the target and triggers the desired biological action. Natco’s main research interest is oncology. This approach has successfully resulted in NCE candidates which are now in various preclinical and clinical stages.