Indian CRO GVK Biosciences has signed a deal with a Japanese outfit to market its drug repurposing services in the country, part of the company's plot to diversify its revenue sources.
Through the deal, Japan's CTC Life Science Corporation will market and distribute GVK's drug repurposing platform, designed to identify alternative indications for drugs either failed or already on the market. The offering, called GVK Repurposing Integrated Platform (GRIP), is a combination of the CRO's proprietary databases and some public domain info, allowing for drug-, target- and disease-based research into which candidates can treat which ailments.
In tandem with the platform, GVK offers collaborative research services through which its investigators will assist with repurposing from hypothesis generation to IND-enabling preclinical studies, the company said.
GVK is again looking to CTC to bolster its presence on the Japanese market, following deals to co-market the CRO's GOSTAR, GOBIOM and clinical outcomes databases in the country. And, for CTC, the latest agreement will capitalize on spike in demand for drug repurposing in Japan, CEO Ryouji Yokoyama said.
"Such trend has been driven by necessity, because the new drug approval rate in Japan has been falling over recent years," Yokoyama said in a statement. "Yet the biggest reason for the rising interest in drug repositioning is that it is considered as one of important ways to deliver safer drugs to patients faster and more reliably by discovering new indication from approved drugs and dropout compounds with already-confirmed safety and pharmacokinetic properties."
Meanwhile, the fast-expanding GVK has been striking deals around the globe to dial up its presence. Earlier this month, the Hyderabad-headquartered company acquired Chennai's Vanta Bioscience for an undisclosed sum, targeting a provider of toxicology and safety assessments. That deal came on the heels of a buyout of California's Aragen Bioscience in February, which shepherded the CRO into the U.S. and into biologics development.
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