Small and Medium Scale Antibiotic Developers: Challenges they face and the way forward

Dr. Vasan Sambandamurthy is Senior VP, Global Operations at Bugworks Research – a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel broad-spectrum antibiotics and immunotherapies to treat patients with critical care needs in infection and cancer.

Vasan brings over 20 years of professional experience in vaccine discovery and drug development at major global corporations like Novartis, AstraZeneca, and Biocon. At these organisations he has held senior leadership positions, provided strategic directions to develop affordable medicines across multiple therapeutic areas including oncology, diabetes, infectious diseases (specifically TB and malaria), inflammation.

Most recently, he was CEO of DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance, a major global funding agency that supports basic, clinical and public health research. Currently, he is a Board member of AMR Industry Alliance – one of the largest private sector coalitions set up to provide sustainable solutions to curb AMR.

Dr Sachin S. Bhagwat has 28 years of experience in the discovery and development of novel antibiotics. He began his discovery research career at Ranbaxy Laboratories, New Delhi (1995-1998) and later on joined antibiotic discovery team at Wockhardt Research Center, Aurangabad (1998-till date) eventually leading the preclinical evaluation of NCEs. Focused and sustained efforts of >25 years at Wockhardt have led to a strong novel antibiotic pipeline with four NCEs at advanced clinical stage and two launched. Dr Bhagwat’s research interest includes, historical discovery approaches, unmet need in bacterial infections, mechanism of action and resistance, clinical dose identifying PK/PD studies, and international collaborative research. Dr Bhagwat is the inventor / co-inventor in 40+ granted US/EU patents covering five major antibacterial classes, fluoroquinolones, oxazolidinones, macrolide/ketolides, β-lactams and diazabicycloctane and has authored several original research articles. He earned his Ph.D. degree in 2002 (Bhopal University) on pharmacodynamic efficacy determinants of quinolone antibacterials.

Dr. Balganesh has three decades of experience in antibacterial drug discovery. As the Head of Research at AstraZeneca, Bangalore, he led the unit to deliver AstraZeneca’s first anti-tuberculosis molecule for clinical development. Before taking up his current appointment at GangaGen, in his capacity as Distinguished Scientist, he mentored drug discovery programs in various Indian National Laboratories under the Government of India’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Dr. Balganesh’s research experience is in the area of infectious diseases. He led the diarrheal diseases and broad-spectrum anti-bacterial project teams at AstraZeneca, Bangalore. He then went on to lead the anti-tuberculosis program. He has more than 30 publications and 10 patents to his name.

Dr. Balganesh is trained as a Medical Microbiologist at the University of Calcutta. He gained his post-doctoral experience at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York, and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin. Dr. Balganesh has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Uppsala in recognition of his work in tuberculosis and malaria. He is on the review panel of drug discovery programs like the ‘Innovative Medicines Initiative’; a European Union program to seeking novel treatments for Gram-negative bacterial pathogens. He continues to guide research programs in several National Laboratories in India. He is also a mentor and reviewer of programs initiated by the Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation in India.

Dr Kumar holds a PhD degree in Biotechnology from Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh. Subsequently, he moved to University of Illinois at Chicago, where he worked on leukaemia. He also holds an MBA degree from the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University, US.

After returning from US, he joined as a Vice- President of Life Science Incubator at IKP Knowledge Park, Hyderabad where he was involved in actively mentoring incubatee companies, creating pipeline of entrepreneurs through innovative models of team building around the technologies, working with public R&D laboratories and universities to create entrepreneurial models of commercialisation. Later, he took charge as the Director & Head of Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre with a focus on incubating innovations in agriculture, food and nutrition, biofuel/bio-energy and pharma/healthcare. He has worked closely with Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and the Department of Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, Government of Karnataka, to create a vibrant Life Sciences Innovation cluster in Bangalore. He is also a guest faculty at University of Agricultural Sciences, Centre for Human Genetics, Manipal Institute of Regenerative Medicine MIRM and Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. He is a member of various Central and State Government Committees and advises on policy matters related to startups, innovation and entrepreneurship in Life Sciences. Currently, he is a member of CII national committee on Biotechnology, Member of Association of Biotech Led Enterprises ABLE , Member of committee for Karnataka Start-up policy and Member for Government of India supported Bangalore Innovation cluster under the aegis of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

He is an Internationally acclaimed thinker and advisor on Biotech Innovations and entrepreneurship. He has been invited as a speaker at various conferences in USA, South Korea and the Netherlands to represent India and Karnataka.

He has inspired thousands of youths to start and build successful Biotech ventures. He has around 20 years of experience in research and innovation management in the area of life sciences. He has around 25 peer reviewed publications and around 45 products have been launched under his mentorship.

Amit Khurana is Director of the Sustainable Food Systems programme at the Centre for Science and Environment, India. Along with his team, Amit works to push for necessary change in policy and practice on issues related to junk foods and non-communicable diseases; pesticide use and organic and natural farming; and antibiotic use in food production and waste management from farms and factories and their linkages with the growing crisis of antimicrobial resistance. He works for the required change at the national level, and in countries of the global south as well as global policy relevant to such countries.

Rajeshwari Sinha is a Programme Manager in the Sustainable Food Systems programme at the Centre for Science and Environment. At CSE, she leads the global and national portfolio of the antimicrobial resistance programme, focusing on the animal and environmental aspects. Her work entails policy advocacy and research on issues around AMR, food systems and sustainable food. She holds a doctoral degree in microbial biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology of Delhi, following which she transitioned into working at the science-policy interface in the public health space. She is also an alumna of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Gauri Arora is a Programme Officer in the Sustainable Food Systems programme at the Centre for Science and Environment. At CSE, she works on the global and national portfolio of the antimicrobial resistance programme, focusing on the animal and environmental aspects. She holds a master’s degree in environmental studies and resource management from TERI School of Advanced Studies, Delhi, and is also an alumna of University of Delhi.