The Hindu Business Line : Health diagnostics firm targets India for investment, market

‘India is at serious risk of the spread of zoonotic diseases or zoonoses such as avian influenza from birds, malaria, dengue and chikungunya from mosquitoes and rabies from dogs and bats.’

G. Chandrashekhar

Recently in Toronto

Management of health risks for humans, animals and plants is becoming increasingly tough in a world that is rapidly globalising with easing border controls. Diseases in animals or contamination of foods can force enormous losses not only on producers but also on the society at large.

Diagnostic Tools

Use of appropriate diagnostic tools for early detection, evaluation and containment of risks is becoming increasingly critical. No wonder, diagnostic technologies are making rapid advances with a view to exploiting the ever-increasing demand for pathogen surveillance in animals, food and the environment.

Preventive measures

It has become apparent that preventive strategies employing new detection methods that are not only rapid but also cost-effective will be required to better manage human health and economic impacts of these pathogens.

Traditional approaches have now turned less-rapid, more expensive and on occasions, unreliable.

“Trying to manage disease without diagnostic tools is like flying an airplane without instruments,” pointed out the Chief Executive Officer of Safeguard Biosystems Group of Companies, Mr Richard Strafehl, a frontline provider of fast, high-throughput and cost-effective solutions to meet the needs of the market in fighting disruptive pathogens.

Disease control

In a freewheeling discussion with this correspondent at Toronto recently, the entrepreneur asserted that the core business strategy of his company was to commercialise ground-breaking diagnostic technologies in the field of disease control.

Highlighting that the basic principle of the business was that ‘you cannot manage what you cannot measure’, Mr Strafehl said Safeguard Biosystems (SGBio) strength lies in ‘point-of-need’ detection solutions for genetic screening and pathogen surveillance.

Currently, SGBio focuses on rapid molecular diagnostics that is quickly detecting DNA, RNA and proteins at a molecular level with minimal laboratory equipments and human handling.

Queried about the practical application of these technologies in real-life situations such as in India (instances of bird-flu in the eastern region), he said India is at serious risk of the spread of zoonotic diseases or zoonoses (diseases that can be spread from animals to humans) such as avian influenza (AI) from birds, malaria, dengue and chikungunya from mosquitoes and rabies from dogs and bats. Diagnostic tools permit focussed, cost-saving application of eradication efforts, he pointed out.

Detection kits

SGBio is already in talks with Indian companies concerning its kit for detection of AI.

Although India is world’s topmost producer of milk (over 105 million tonnes) and has a large cattle population, diseases are a major cost to the industry much of which is largely unorganised.

For example, bovine viral diarrhoea is known to cause enormous losses even in advanced countries (the US and France, for instance), but in India, the extent of losses are not known because of lack of surveillance.

Similarly, mastitis (a disease that manifests in the udders) in cows is known to cause huge losses due to reduced production and lower prices generated for lower quality milk.

SGBio is partnering BAIF Development Research foundation (located near Pune) to develop a rapid diagnostic for mastitis, Dr Stephen M. Ross, Director of market development revealed.

In addition, the SGBio-BAIF collaboration covers pregnancy detection among cattle. Instead of the time-consuming and unreliable technique of manual palpitation, efforts are on to develop low-cost, rapid test for the rural market that will enable improved dairy productivity at a nominal cost/animal.

According to Dr Ross, India has the highest incidence of human papilloma virus (HPV) which is the direct cause of virtually all cervical cancer cases.

India has also the dubious distinction of having the world’s highest mortality rate due to cervical cancer, according to the World Health Organisation report.

Vaccination

Suggesting that vaccination rates are low due to the current high cost of the vaccine products, Dr Ross asserted that production within India should make public vaccination programs affordable.

“SGBio has developed a genetic screening diagnostic for HPV that can positively identify the exact viral subtype,” he said.

With offices and research facilities across countries (the US, Canada, the UK), SGBio has secured exclusive or semi-exclusive licences on more than 50 technology patents.

These technologies have had investments in excess of $100 million from the inventors, partners and granting agencies.

Early 2007, the company acquired Forsite Diagnostics Ltd from the British government, with ongoing business of development, manufacture, marketing and sale of lateral flow devices for the detection of diseases in plants, sold under the trademark ‘Pocket diagnostics’.

SGBio is now looking for investors and collaborating partners in India as the company believes the country is under-serviced in critical areas of health risk management.

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