ICMR throws spanner into IISc’s scheme on rifampicin, INH against malaria

R Baby Manoj - Bangalore

The Bangalore based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) effort to use rifampicin and INH (isoniazid), the drugs used in tuberculosis, for fighting malaria caused by chloroquin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum in direct human clinical trials received a set back as the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has asked them to do trials in primates first. This means finding a permanent cost-effective solution to this deadly poor man’s disease, is far from reality.

‘‘The excitement about our discovery initially I had, has come down with this directive from ICMR,’’ said a dismayed Prof Dr G Padmanaban, the chief scientist behind the research which has made the discovery that both the drugs currently used to treat tuberculosis, are effective in fighting malaria too.

The ICMR did not pay heed to Prof Padmanaban’s view that ‘since these drugs are already in use for a long time for tuberculosis and that their toxicity studies and human clinical trials were successfully done and hence again experimenting them in primates for its efficacy against malaria would be redundant and a wasteful expenditure. Instead, the drugs could directly be used in human patients who suffer from malaria’.

ICMR needs epidemiological data to corroborate IISc’ findings, which is beyond the scope of the latter. The former’s demand for epidemiological data on patients having both tuberculosis and malaria has created a vacuum of bringing a third agency into the picture.

However, this vacuum is expected to be filled by the Central Malaria Research Centre (CMRC), which has agreed for cooperation in this regard, said Prof Padmanabhan.

Malaria has become a scourge in regions like India and Africa which are under tremendous population pressure. The IISc has two tracks of doing research to find an effective cost effective drug for malaria.

Apart from utilising active ingredients of modern drug research on the first track, the traditional and herbal medicines from across the countries are also being experimented on a second track to find their efficacy in curing malaria.

IISc which has its own animal house and a mouse model for malaria research, however, so far, has not found any of the traditional remedies used by tribal populations in many parts of the country effective under experimental conditions. Since there is not much of a scope for making handsome profit in marketing a malaria drug, drug companies including MNCs are not interested in spending on R&D for it. Now the demand for study in primates by ICMR has posed a conundrum before both IISc and CMRC.