NIPER-Mohali Scientists developing engineered antibody to address inflammation-driven diseases
Babushahi Bureau
Mohali, August 14, 2024: Scientists from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali, have achieved national recognition by winning the National Bio-Entrepreneurship Competition 2024 (NBEC 2024).
NBEC 2024, organized by C-CAMP in collaboration with BIRAC, is one of the country’s most prestigious biotech competitions, drawing over 3,000 participants from across India. NIPER team was honored for their novel biopharmaceutical product, BiSpekDAb™, an engineered bispecific antibody designed to block both TNF-α and IL-23 cytokines, key contributors to various inflammatory conditions.
BiSpekDAb™ is being developed by the Protein Biopharmaceutical lab led by Dr. Abhay H. Pande, Professor in the Department of Biotechnology, in collaboration with Dr. Shyam S. Sharma, Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.
BiSpekDAb™ was recognized for its significant potential to mitigate asthma inflammation, defended by the Ph.D. scholar Mr. Sandeep and won the grand finale of competition under the ‘drug discovery & development’ category.
The technology was appreciated by the extinguished jury members and won the Accel cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh presented by IT-BT and Rural Development Minister Sh. Priyank Kharge.
Prof. Pande, who has over 20 years of experience in the field, emphasized the growing importance of protein biopharmaceuticals in healthcare and their critical role in bolstering Indian economy.His lab is actively engaged in developing various biopharmaceuticals targeting multiple diseases, with antibody programs being a key focus. Prof. Pande envisions reducing national reliance on pharmaceutical imports and advancing the country towards self-reliance in healthcare.
"Indian biopharmaceutical research has immense potential and will play a pivotal role in driving the nation’s economy. The success of BiSpekDAb™ is just one example of the strides we are making," Prof. Pande stated.
Prof. Sharma, commenting on the success, highlighted the high prevalence of inflammatory disorders both in India and globally, and noted that effective biologics like BiSpekDAb™ could provide much-needed solution for inflammation –driven conditions like Asthma. His masters student, Chirag Gala showed BiSpekDAb potential in Asthma model.
The technology is already patented and is set to undergo further pre-clinical studies in collaboration with Prof. Sharma, with an aim to explore its efficacy in various other inflammatory conditions. The teams next goal is to advance the technology to the Investigational New Drug (IND) application stage, with all necessary steps will be taken in future to make BiSpekDAb™ available across the nation.