Reliable research – Where are we going wrong?

Like any field and probably contrary to beliefs, life in research is very frustrating. The chances of success are minimal. The scientists not only need to worry about the failed experiments but also worry about the peer pressure, the rat race to publish and publish for the sake of getting new grants and also continuance of the old grants. After all a scientist is worth how much grants he has or how many publications he has.

But in doing all this, we as scientific community are doing a great disservice to the field of science. Many of the published articles are either not genuine or are not reproducible. The beauty of research is that an observation in one part of the world can and should be faithfully reproduced anywhere else provided the reagents are of the same quality and of course the experiments are repeated as were done in the original research. However, still, most of the research goes the non-reproducible way!!! Now this is a big blot on the credibility of the scientific research community. The basic research is the template on which newer medicines would be based. And one recent article in Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/28/us-science-cancer-idUSBRE82R12P20120328) highlights the pitfalls of such a alarming scenario.

There needs to be a mechanism that would and should delink a scientists’ credibility from the number of research articles published otherwise this problem can take a serious turn for the worse!!!!

Predicament of a researcher

Researcher is like an artist, getting pleasure from his creations (discoveries or inventions). And like artists, the researchers at heart are more worried about the theories and pathways rather than the business of it.

However, in this day and age, research needs a lot of capital to start with and to sustain. And in the rush of producing “data”, the real focus shifts from good research to just noise. Thousands of papers are published in as many journals but most of them are not even worth the paper they are printed in.  But in this “kalyuga”, it is important to get the recognition and the grant going hence the odd saga continues.................

When the world economy is going for a spin, who bothers about the research or researchers. People who bring business become more important for an organization. But we all forget, that society, economy and life for that matter is dependent on constant innovation. Science and scientific innovations are making our lives worth living but scientists are the least paid and looked after.

Isn’t it time we realized this folly? Corrective mindsets are need of the hour or else as falling sex ratio in many regions of India is a major problem, soon dearth of people taking up research or scientists leaving research would push India back..............

Mental illness - an appalling state of affairs

Depression is a simple word but has a devastating meaning. It is a disease which ruins not only the individual but also affects the entire family. Particularly in today’s day and life when stress (both professional and personal) is slowly gripping the society, cases of depression have been skyrocketing.  Talking about mental illness however, has been a taboo in our society. People afflicted with such diseases are socially boycotted. It is time when people, government realized the impact such an ailment has on the society. Western countries are a shade better when it comes to the acceptance of mental ailment and availability of healthcare workers, psycho analysts and psychiatrists to deal with such issues. But it is in an appalling state in our country.

The area of research and treatment in this field is also fraught with naivety and is not very advanced. Even there are no credible biomarkers to diagnose such ailments; it solely depends on the profiling done by the psychiatrist. We still do not know the mechanism of action of some of the drugs and doubts persist about their effectiveness as therapies. Patients even avoid taking these drugs as they are unsure of the possible ‘side-effects’ of these molecules. Yes, research on brain is a very difficult proposition, yes; it requires cutting edge technologies probably in the edge of what science can offer today and yes we are years if not probably decades away from a ‘cure’ to most of these ailments. But having said that, are we spending enough in this field? Are the pharma companies/Governments doing enough? Of course the cash cows for the industry remains cancer, diabetes etc. but if do not look deeper into the problem and increase funding and research into this field then the cost of dealing with the outcome would be dangerously high!

Modern Genomic technologies - an exciting era

The next generation sequencing and microarray technologies have transformed the way questions in biology are being answered today. The technology is ever evolving and at a pace rivalled only by the information technology sector. The future would be even more exciting as fast paced developments not only at the hardware side but at the software side(bioinformatics included) are envisioned that would take the life science industry forward.

                                                                                                                                                

Diabetes cure - a fresh approach is the need of the hour

We are in the 21^st century. A new millennium and a hope that new discoveries, innovations would help us thwart diseases like cancer, diabetes, schizophrenia etc. Actually, if we leave the mental illness aside for a minute as the science studying mind/brain is pretty nascent; then one would ponder why we are still years if not decades away from finding a credible cure for diseases like cancer, diabetes and HIV! Right now we only treat diseases like diabetes not cure them………………….

Let’s talk about diabetes, type 2 to be precise for a moment. The best medicine for decades to treat (not cure, mind it!) has been metformin. This humble drug has shown tremendous resilience in terms of safety and efficacy and is and probably would be the first line of therapy for years to come!

 The current or upcoming therapies for diabetes mostly revolve around two aspects – a) increasing insulin secretion (sulphonylureas take the cake here) or b) increasing insulin sensitivity (PPARs/metformin etc). Even the new ones like the GLP-1s or DPP-IV inhibitors ultimately increase insulin secretion though independent of glucose concentration (better than sulphonylureas!). But to me these are just like “cosmetic” drugs treating the symptom not the cause and I feel that we have still not properly understood this disease. In this context, I would like to share a new discovery that can change the perception of how we look at type 2 diabetes.  New research has suggested that the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes may be linked to an immune system reaction gone awry. Till now, we have been looking at type 2 diabetes as a metabolic disease and immune system malaise is mostly associated with the other cousin of diabetes , the type 1 diabetes. Now, if the above said observation is indeed found to be credible in subsequent research then it would mean a tremendous paradigm shift in type 2 diabetes research. I guess, this kind of observation/research is the step in the right direction to understand the cause of the disease.

Probably, joining the pieces of the diabetes puzzle through innovative and fresh thinking is the right approach to finding a “cure” for this scourge rather than trying to better the current therapies to “treat” the disease.

Indian Pharma - Generic all the way and innovation out of the way?

India is poising itself to be the new Knowledge superpower. An economy which is dubbed as a knowledge economy with huge asset of English speaking educated people who can take India to the top. However, why is it then that we do not hear or read about any “new” path-breaking drug development from India? We have an estimated close to 20,000 pharma companies employing the “best” scientists/researchers/chemists etc.  In fact last few years have seen a “reverse brain drain” giving India back its lost scientists and researchers. So what pulls us back from innovating?

Well, there are many reasons behind it. But one of the most important reasons is the focus on generics rather than “innovative” research in the Indian pharma industry. It is easy for a pharma company to achieve a better return of investment with very little risk if they invest in generics. Big names like Ranbaxy labs which were into some good “research” completely re-focused themselves into generics business. Most big companies in India spend a penny on innovative research as compared to their western counterparts. This trend, though profitable for pharma may be disastrous for them in the long run and also for the country.

Drug discovery is a 'high risk and high return' business. But most small and medium level pharma being run by business families probably do not understand the importance of innovation. For most, it is how much do they get in return and how fast?!!!! I know of instances when reputed pharma companies recruiting scientists would ask questions like “can you develop XYZ in one year?” or “what do we gain from your academic experience, would it help us get our investment back?”  Questions like these not only show the hollowness of approach but also affect the morale of budding scientists as they also start to think everything in terms of investment and returns without actually thinking about innovation.  I am not in the favor of giving a lifetime deadline or a free run to scientists as well (as happens in most of our Government labs) but want to see a rational approach.

Moreover, unfortunately, we do not yet have the “Venture capital” mindset in drug discovery. Indian Venture capitalists are gung ho about investing in IT but see black when approached for investment in life sciences!!! There are few Indian companies that are trying to change that but they are constantly under undue pressure from their investors, who would have seen other IT start ups booming by the time a biotech/pharma drug discovery start up barely starts walking!!!!!!

In conclusion, penny wise pound foolish approach of Indian pharma industry would be detrimental for the overall growth of this sector in the long run if the mindset and approach is not overhauled!  

Novel drugs and pharma industry - a catch 22 situation

Success has many fathers and failure has none! Well, this adage is true in every aspect and surely holds water in pharma industry too. Whenever a new mechanism of action (MoA) of a drug shows promise, pharma companies bring their own version into their pipeline to be either “first in class” or be the “best in class”in that segment. But here is the catch. Not many of the new potential class of drugs (MoAs) have been studied carefully for a long period of time (~10 years or so) and hence scientific community as a whole would be in the dark to know what would happen if such drugs are in chronic use for a long period of time!

So, it is strange indeed, a kind of catch 22 situation. We need new drugs to counter diseases or disorders but we probably cannot wait to see the safety of these drugs for a decade to deem them fit for consumption! There have been many occasions when blockbuster drugs have been withdrawn after some time from the market when side effects were found to be profound. This leads to huge financial loss for the company involved and trust deficit not only in the company but also in the regulatory bodies which approve them in the first place. Of course, the loss of human lives or debilitating diseases associated in such cases cannot be weighed in terms of financial loss.

It is not that everything (I mean the potential side effects) cannot be predicted beforehand. We have seen that even when drugs in the pre-clinical stage have shown some glaring side effects yet these have been approved. Worse still, pharma companies sometimes hide such data on the garb of statistics and get around the approval door. But in the long run this leads to loss for such companies only!

Nothing in this world is full of positives and devoid of risks and so is the business of drug discovery. But what we need is rational understanding of novel MoAs and honesty before the pharma companies release their drugs into the market for human consumption.