Madras University researching AIDS care drug:
September 10, 2004 Madras University has begun a project to develop an AIDS care drug.

It will partner the Bharatidasan University and a Chennai-based
pharmaceutical company, ABL Biotechnology Ltd, to develop a drug against three important viruses.

The research work is being done at the biotechnology centre of the
university. "We expect to develop the drug in the next three years," said Madras University vice-chancellor S.P. Thiagarajan.

The university has created facilities for 36 types of testing. The research project will use marine cyano-bacteria, a blue green algae, as a host to develop a drug against HIV, the Herpes Simplex virus and the Hepatitis B virus.

India has over 5.1 million HIV/AIDS patients, the second highest in the world after South Africa.

The collaborative research project will be headed by Thiagarajan himself.

G. Subramanian, the former director of national facility for marine cyano-bacteria from the Bharathidasan University, told the media here that the marine blue green alga, known as the Phormidum species, had properties that kill the three kinds of viruses.

ABL Biotechnologies Ltd will fund the studies on animals, toxicology trials and the clinical trials in human patients, Subramanian said. It has advanced Rs.1 million for the first stage of the three-year project.