![]() With successful laboratory results, CSIR last month transferred the technology to Mumbai-based firm Epygen Biotech Pvt Ltd that would carry out pre-clinical studies and subsequently clinical trials, if those studies turn out to be a success. The prevalence of stroke is much higher in India than the West and about 87% of all strokes are ischemic strokes, caused by an obstruction in the blood vessel. Worldwide it is the second leading cause of death affecting nearly 15 million people, out of which 11 million people either die or become permanently disabled. An estimated 12 lakh Indians suffer from it every year. Without that check, it may be harmful to give any clot-buster to a stroke patient.īrain stroke, which occurs due to the blockage of an artery that supplies oxygen to the brain, is the leading cause of death and disability in rural India. This, Sahni argued, would leave doctors in small cities and rural India with adequate time to do an MRI on a stroke patient to determine if he/she is a fit case for administering the clot-buster. ![]() Moreover, it is inexpensive," Girish Sahni, the director general of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and principle investigator of the project told DH. "Our product, PEGylated Streptokinase, has a half-life of 2-8 hours because of which it can be administered 8-10 hours after an ischemic stroke. The Indian alternative seeks to address both issues. ![]() Administered after the window period, it causes more harm than good. ![]() It is expensive and needs to be given within the "golden window" of three hours of the stroke. The tPA, however, comes with two problems. Indian scientists have created a new inexpensive clot-busting drug that can be administered to ischemic stroke patient within 8-10 hours, unlike a popular medicine that needs to be given within the first three hours.ĭeveloped by scientists at the Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, the new drug has the potential to emerge as a low-cost alternative to tissue plasminogen activator or tPA, a block-buster anti-clot busting medicine being used around the world in the last two decades. ![]()
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