DRI develops alternative drug to statins

Till now, there was no commercial alternative available to the statins. The testing of the new drug on humans in three phases has shown that it is safe. Gugulipid has been licensed to pharma industry for marketing as well. The institute has entered into collaboration with Cadilla Pharma, Ahmedabad, and the Drug Controller has given permission for the use of the drug, Tuli said.

He said since the natural compound of the drug was not easily available, the synthetic drug was formulated. “In fact, we found the chemical molecule was more active”, added Tuli. CDRI has been researching and developing the drug for over three decades. The work was initially started by Dr Nityanand and Dr Sukhdev and was completed by Dr O P Asthana, Dr Aseem Ghatak and Dr Ram Pratap.