India’s genetic divide may hit pharma cos’ R&D plans

30 September 2009

HYDERABAD: Global pharma firms making drugs for the Indian market may have to review their discovery and development programme, following a path-breaking discovery by top Indian and American scientists that India is genetically not a single large population.

“Drug companies engaged in clinical trails could be worried as our research shows that many groups in modern India descend from a small number of founding individuals. A common drug may not be the answer, considering the genetic variation in the Indian population. For instance, medicines tested on the Western population may not be effective on the Indian population,” said Lalji Singh, former director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular and Biology (CCMB) who has co-authored the research findings on Reconstructing the Indian Population History, said on Thursday……Read complete news item….