The BBC reports that Indian researchers have created computer modeling software to allow researchers there pre-screen potential drug compounds before moving to animal tests with the compounds.
Such systems are routinely used in the United States, but such software tends to be expensive and out of reach of the developing world.
Developed by Delhi’s Invenio Biosolutions, the Drug Discovery Assistant is currently being used by India’s Central Drug Research Institute. According to the BBC, the program will help reduce the number of trials involving animals from 20-30 to 2-3 in the initial evaluation of a compound.
The upshot of this — and the reason such systems are used widely in the developed world — is this will cut in half the drug development time (which, according to the BBC, is currently around 20-25 years in India).
Source:
Indian software replaces lab animals. Ram Dutt Tripathi, The BBC, June 6, 2003.