The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has launched an innovative ‘Open Source Drug Discovery’ (OSDD) programme to find cures for infectious diseases that affect the developing world. OSDD is a CSIR led consortium with global partnership with a vision to provide affordable healthcare to all and especially to the weaker sections of global populations. It draws inspiration from the success of open source movements in software and the Human Genome Sequencing Project. The Minister of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Shri. Kapil Sibal officially launched ‘Open Source Drug Discovery’ (OSDD) programme on 15th September 2008. The project was globally launched during the Human Genome Meeting 2008 in Hyderabad on 28th September 2008.
Market forces discourage big pharmaceutical companies from developing drugs for infectious diseases that affect the developing world since such projects have long gestation period, heavy Research and Development (R&D) costs and low success rate. Even when successful, the returns are low since these diseases generally afflict the poorer sections of the society. It is estimated that only about 1% of newly developed drugs are for tropical diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria, lymphatic filariasis, dengue, leishmaniasis (kala-azar), etc. The traditional patent driven model, valuable in many fields, has failed to drive research and development of drugs for diseases affecting the developing world.
The OSDD model, on the other hand, represents a viable alternate model of drug discovery for infectious diseases. It expands resources for research manifold by allowing open access and collaboration among voluntary researchers. Towards this end, CSIR has set up a web portal http://www.osdd.net. This portal provides a platform for collaborative research, data on the pathogens, tools for data analysis, and discussion forum for members to share ideas, projects for students to participate in drug discovery, etc., The collaborative research process provides better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility and lowers the cost of drug discovery. OSDD harnesses the collaborative genius of the internet, the distributed computing power and access to diversified expertise providing a global platform where biologists, chemists, software professionals, private enterprises, students and others can collaborate. As of 5th January 2009, there are more than 525 registered participants from all across the globe. In addition, there are nearly 50 projects posted online by scientists from various research institutes/universities/industry open for collaboration.
In OSDD the entire process of drug discovery is divided into ten Work Packages (WPs) which are posted on the OSDD website. As part of an on-line community, the contributors may work from anywhere in the world at any time that suits them. Any idea, software, article or molecule that helps in expediting the process of drug discovery is treated as a contribution. All contributions will be peer-reviewed and appropriate credits will be assigned for each contribution. In addition, challenges are also posted on the OSDD website and appropriate rewards given for correct solutions. OSDD welcomes all who are ready to share their time/resources. In the OSDD programme, a core committee of expert scientists monitors the entire process of drug discovery closely. The entire drug discovery process is conducted online and the New Chemical Entities (NCEs) will be generic as soon as discovered. This will enable pharmaceutical companies to bring the medicines to the market, and yet keep drug prices competitive.
Until recently, drug discovery was a “wet” science – if scientists wanted to identify potentially therapeutic chemicals, they had to do experiments in test tubes, and use live cultures or animals. Developments in bioinformatics have enabled researchers to do drug discovery ‘in silico’ – that is, by sitting in front of their computers or in “dry” labs. Researchers can compare, on computers, potential disease targets against large chemical databases to identify potential drugs. The Internet encourages synergizing of the inventive spirit of a large number of researchers by uniting them in a collaborative mode for drug discovery. The laboratory experiments during this process will be carried at CSIR sponsored labs.
Drugs Against Tuberculosis
In the first phase, drugs against Tuberculosis (TB) bacillus (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), will be undertaken. This includes drugs against both drug resistant and latent tuberculosis. Why Tuberculosis as the first disease targeted? TB is the leading cause of death from bacterial infection. WHO reports that one-third of the world’s population is currently infected with TB. The estimated incidence of TB in India is 1.8 million new cases annually. This amounts to 3 TB deaths every 2 minutes. The current TB therapy was developed in the 1960’s and no major advancement in treatment has emerged for almost half a century. Of the 1,556 new chemical entities marketed worldwide, between 1975 and 2004, only three were for TB. The presently used drugs- Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide and Ethambutol- with standard therapeutic duration of 6-9 months, require careful monitoring if drug resistance is to be avoided. The Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB takes longer to treat with second-line drugs, which are more expensive and have stronger side-effects. Extensively Drug Resistant (XDR) TB can develop when these second-line drugs are misused or mismanaged and available therapy therefore also become ineffective. Because XDR-TB is resistant to first- and second-line drugs, treatment options are seriously limited (Source – WHO, ICMR).
Incentives
To encourage students and researchers to participate, problems encountered in drug discovery process will be posted as “Challenges” on the OSDD website. Each problem will have a pre-determined set of credit points associated to it. The best solutions, as decided by a committee of peer reviewers, will be commensurately rewarded. The registered participants will be provided with colour coded membership cards. Users can upgrade the card (change colour) by providing more quality-inputs. CSIR is exploring the possibility of tying up with banks to add incentive features to the cards issued to OSDD members. Students may also enroll online for summer projects of their choice from the list of projects hosted on the web portal. The progress of each project will be assessed by their online project mentors. Students would also be awarded certificates to acknowledge their contributions.
Funding
In the Eleventh Plan, CSIR has earmarked Rs. 150 crores for the OSDD project. An equivalent amount of funding is expected to be raised from international agencies and philanthropists. About Rs. 46 crores has been already released by CSIR for this project.
Partners
In this largest ever collaborative research project on drug discovery, various scientists/researchers and institutions/universities/industries are collaborating. The current partners include Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB, Delhi), Institute of Microbial Technology (IMT, Chandigarh), Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI, Lucknow), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU, Delhi), Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD, Hyderabad), National JALMA Institute of Leprosy and other Mycobacterial Diseases (JALMA, ICMR, Agra), Anna University – K B Chandrasekhar (AU-KBC, Chennai), Cambia (Australia), Institute of Life Sciences (ILS, Hyderabad), Sun microsystems (India), LeadInvent (Delhi), Jalaja Technologies, TCG LifeSciences (Kolkata).
Participants
As on 5th January, OSDD has more than 525 members from 17 different countries across the globe.
*Inputs from Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi
RTS/VN
SS-11/SF-11/20.01.2009
Market forces discourage big pharmaceutical companies from developing drugs for infectious diseases that affect the developing world since such projects have long gestation period, heavy Research and Development (R&D) costs and low success rate. Even when successful, the returns are low since these diseases generally afflict the poorer sections of the society. It is estimated that only about 1% of newly developed drugs are for tropical diseases, such as tuberculosis, malaria, lymphatic filariasis, dengue, leishmaniasis (kala-azar), etc. The traditional patent driven model, valuable in many fields, has failed to drive research and development of drugs for diseases affecting the developing world.
The OSDD model, on the other hand, represents a viable alternate model of drug discovery for infectious diseases. It expands resources for research manifold by allowing open access and collaboration among voluntary researchers. Towards this end, CSIR has set up a web portal http://www.osdd.net. This portal provides a platform for collaborative research, data on the pathogens, tools for data analysis, and discussion forum for members to share ideas, projects for students to participate in drug discovery, etc., The collaborative research process provides better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility and lowers the cost of drug discovery. OSDD harnesses the collaborative genius of the internet, the distributed computing power and access to diversified expertise providing a global platform where biologists, chemists, software professionals, private enterprises, students and others can collaborate. As of 5th January 2009, there are more than 525 registered participants from all across the globe. In addition, there are nearly 50 projects posted online by scientists from various research institutes/universities/industry open for collaboration.
In OSDD the entire process of drug discovery is divided into ten Work Packages (WPs) which are posted on the OSDD website. As part of an on-line community, the contributors may work from anywhere in the world at any time that suits them. Any idea, software, article or molecule that helps in expediting the process of drug discovery is treated as a contribution. All contributions will be peer-reviewed and appropriate credits will be assigned for each contribution. In addition, challenges are also posted on the OSDD website and appropriate rewards given for correct solutions. OSDD welcomes all who are ready to share their time/resources. In the OSDD programme, a core committee of expert scientists monitors the entire process of drug discovery closely. The entire drug discovery process is conducted online and the New Chemical Entities (NCEs) will be generic as soon as discovered. This will enable pharmaceutical companies to bring the medicines to the market, and yet keep drug prices competitive.
Until recently, drug discovery was a “wet” science – if scientists wanted to identify potentially therapeutic chemicals, they had to do experiments in test tubes, and use live cultures or animals. Developments in bioinformatics have enabled researchers to do drug discovery ‘in silico’ – that is, by sitting in front of their computers or in “dry” labs. Researchers can compare, on computers, potential disease targets against large chemical databases to identify potential drugs. The Internet encourages synergizing of the inventive spirit of a large number of researchers by uniting them in a collaborative mode for drug discovery. The laboratory experiments during this process will be carried at CSIR sponsored labs.
Drugs Against Tuberculosis
In the first phase, drugs against Tuberculosis (TB) bacillus (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), will be undertaken. This includes drugs against both drug resistant and latent tuberculosis. Why Tuberculosis as the first disease targeted? TB is the leading cause of death from bacterial infection. WHO reports that one-third of the world’s population is currently infected with TB. The estimated incidence of TB in India is 1.8 million new cases annually. This amounts to 3 TB deaths every 2 minutes. The current TB therapy was developed in the 1960’s and no major advancement in treatment has emerged for almost half a century. Of the 1,556 new chemical entities marketed worldwide, between 1975 and 2004, only three were for TB. The presently used drugs- Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide and Ethambutol- with standard therapeutic duration of 6-9 months, require careful monitoring if drug resistance is to be avoided. The Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB takes longer to treat with second-line drugs, which are more expensive and have stronger side-effects. Extensively Drug Resistant (XDR) TB can develop when these second-line drugs are misused or mismanaged and available therapy therefore also become ineffective. Because XDR-TB is resistant to first- and second-line drugs, treatment options are seriously limited (Source – WHO, ICMR).
Incentives
To encourage students and researchers to participate, problems encountered in drug discovery process will be posted as “Challenges” on the OSDD website. Each problem will have a pre-determined set of credit points associated to it. The best solutions, as decided by a committee of peer reviewers, will be commensurately rewarded. The registered participants will be provided with colour coded membership cards. Users can upgrade the card (change colour) by providing more quality-inputs. CSIR is exploring the possibility of tying up with banks to add incentive features to the cards issued to OSDD members. Students may also enroll online for summer projects of their choice from the list of projects hosted on the web portal. The progress of each project will be assessed by their online project mentors. Students would also be awarded certificates to acknowledge their contributions.
Funding
In the Eleventh Plan, CSIR has earmarked Rs. 150 crores for the OSDD project. An equivalent amount of funding is expected to be raised from international agencies and philanthropists. About Rs. 46 crores has been already released by CSIR for this project.
Partners
In this largest ever collaborative research project on drug discovery, various scientists/researchers and institutions/universities/industries are collaborating. The current partners include Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB, Delhi), Institute of Microbial Technology (IMT, Chandigarh), Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI, Lucknow), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU, Delhi), Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD, Hyderabad), National JALMA Institute of Leprosy and other Mycobacterial Diseases (JALMA, ICMR, Agra), Anna University – K B Chandrasekhar (AU-KBC, Chennai), Cambia (Australia), Institute of Life Sciences (ILS, Hyderabad), Sun microsystems (India), LeadInvent (Delhi), Jalaja Technologies, TCG LifeSciences (Kolkata).
Participants
As on 5th January, OSDD has more than 525 members from 17 different countries across the globe.
*Inputs from Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi
RTS/VN
SS-11/SF-11/20.01.2009
