DBT, Piramal Life partnership gets extension

NEW DELHI: The department of biotechnology ( DBT) and Piramal Life Sciences have started the second phase of drug discovery partnership to find new drugs from 14,000 microbes, Piramal Life Sciences said.

Piramal Life Sciences and nine national institutes have screened extracts of 2.45 lakh microbes for biological activities and selected 14,000 that may be able to treat cancer, diabetes, inflammation and infectious diseases, it said.

"The team will now start pre-clinical studies to identify molecules for further development," Swati Piramal, vice-chairperson at Piramal Life Sciences told ET.

The three-year old public-private project, jointly funded by the government and Piramal Life Sciences, has been extended for another three years. The company's share price closed at 96.05, up 4.52% at BSE on Friday.