Venus Remedies takes its fight against AMR to next level, joins India AMR Innovation Hub

Chandigarh: Stepping up its determined battle to counter the grave public health threat posed by antimicrobial resistance (AMR), Venus Remedies, one of India’s leading research-driven pharmaceutical companies, has become a member of the India AMR Innovation Hub (IAIH), a collaborative platform of key national and international stakeholders dedicated to reducing the AMR burden in India, with the aim of evolving a consensus and support system for long-term solutions to this impending global health catastrophe.

A program driven by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) in Bengaluru, India, the IAIH strives to introduce appropriate interventions for nurturing an AMR innovation ecosystem in the country through cohesive efforts across the innovation pyramid. Chaired by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, the IAIH has many members from the government, academia, industry, and philanthropic, and not-for-profit organisations, like the World Health Organisation (WHO), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X), Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) which have joined hands to develop suitable public health policies, build capacities, nurture state-of-the-art R&D and undertake AMR stewardship activities to counter the challenge posed by drug-resistant pathogens.

Welcoming Venus Remedies as a new IAIH member, C-CAMP CEO and Director Dr Taslimarif Saiyed said, “We are delighted to have Venus Remedies joining IAIH. The company is a key player in the Indian antibiotics/pharma domain with a track record of responsible manufacturing and access to antibiotics, encouraging appropriate antibiotic use, antibiotic stewardship activities in the clinical domain and developing new breakthrough drugs/therapeutics. This is the exactly the kind of holistic AMR viewpoint we aim to bring to IAIH to boost our collective efforts in AMR mitigation. ”

Venus Remedies is among the very few R&D-based pharma firms in the world focusing on AMR for over two decades. Many of its critical care antibiotics against superbugs have helped millions of patients and prevented the horizontal gene transfer of bacterial resistance from one species to another. The company is also a member of the global AMR Industry Alliance.

Describing the IAIH membership as a continuation of the company’s commitment to combat AMR, Saransh Chaudhary, President, Global Critical Care, Venus Remedies Ltd, and CEO, Venus Medicine Research Centre (VMRC), said, “The collaborative efforts of national and global stakeholders under the aegis of the IAIH will help India devise sustainable solutions to AMR, shape relevant AMR policies and bridge the gaps in antibiotic research and manufacturing with focus on access and rational use. With the IAIH going about its mission to nurture an AMR innovation ecosystem in India through interventions like developing an access and public health policy, capability and capacity building, AMR stewardship and public communication, we believe that it can collectively become an anchor for effecting a systemic change in the Indian AMR research and innovation landscape.”

In order to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the incidence, causes and patterns of AMR in the country with the aim of redefining the way it is being handled, VMRC, the company’s R&D wing, has set up a non-profit organisation called Preserving Life of Existing Antibiotics (PLEA), which seeks to become a rallying point in the long-winded struggle against AMR through a national surveillance programme on antibiotic resistance by bringing together scientists, researchers and clinicians across various disciplines.

PLEA has been working towards spreading awareness about the repercussions of antibiotic misuse through special drives and health camps. It is also promoting antibiotic stewardship by making all-out efforts to ensure adherence to guidelines on antibiotic use in hospitals, especially infection control practices in ICUs.

“Under the aegis of PLEA, we have established a vast network of healthcare institutions and research centres across India for the surveillance of AMR through a comprehensive software system. Implemented through a network of 150 centres spanning 15 states, including leading hospitals and research institutes, for data collection, feed and analysis, this initiative is aimed at understanding trends of emerging resistance. We have so far mapped emerging AMR patterns for more than 40 antibiotics/combinations for close to 25,000 strains, which has immensely helped physicians take informed decisions on designing therapy. We have also reached out to more than 5 lakh people, including 50,000 doctors and paramedical staff, through our awareness campaigns aimed at reducing the unwarranted use of antibiotics,” said Chaudhary.