Valuing partnerships between industry & academia

A leader in translational research, drug discovery, diagnostics, and medical devices, with over two decades of experience spanning academia, startups, and industry, Dr Radha Rangarajan took charge as the Director of Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow in September 2022.

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CDRI is a constituent laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) under the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.

At CSIR-CDRI, Dr Radha has focused on building a strong preclinical pipeline of molecules aligned with India's unmet clinical needs. Under her leadership, a phytopharmaceutical drug is being evaluated in a Phase 3 clinical trial, 2 small molecules have moved into regulatory toxicity studies and 2 others are in late stages of preclinical development. In addition, multiple programmes are in the hitto-lead and hit identification stages. Since January 2023, 5 tech transfer agreements have been signed with industry, including one with Mumbai-based pharmaceutical firm Cipla.