THE STAR (Petraling Jaya, Malaysia) 05 December 04 NUS to develop drugs from venom (Straits Times)
Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) are planning to form a company to develop and market drugs derived from snake venom.
Professor R. Manjunatha Kini and Associate Prof Ge Ruowen – both from the department of biological sciences – as well as Associate Prof Peter Wong from the department of pharmacology, have been in talks with interested parties for the past year and are close to sealing a deal.
Prof Kini said there was a potential “multibillion-dollar market” for the drugs.
One of his latest discoveries is an anti-clotting protein derived from the venom of the rough-scaled snake, found in Australia.
He hopes the protein can be used as long-term medication for patients suffering from coronary heart disease and stroke.
The researchers said it could be potentially more effective and had fewer side effects than current anti-coagulants.
The venom from the rough-scaled snake slows down the formation of thrombin – an enzyme that causes blood to clot – between 500,000 to one million times more effectively than other drugs that prevent thrombin from forming.
Other medications the NUS team has developed include a painkiller stronger than morphine and an anti-hypertensive to lower high-blood pressure.
To make the drugs, certain useful proteins in snake venom are identified and separated from the toxic elements that are harmful to humans.
Synthetic copies of these proteins are then produced.
Snake venom proteins have been the basis for many drugs, including Integrilin, an anti-platelet drug derived from rattlesnake venom that has been used for heart surgery since 2001.
As it was very expensive, it was used at the National University Hospital on about one in 10 heart patients who underwent procedures to clear clogged arteries, said its cardiac chief Dr Tan Huay Cheem.
Once the NUS team has formed the company, it will take another two to three years of further laboratory tests before clinical trials can be conducted.
NUS to develop drugs from venom