We might need to redefine our approach to drug discovery and approval to be prepared for the future

Hitesh Windlass, MD,Windlas Biotech gives an overview of the changes bought by COVID-19 pandemic in the pharma industry, his organisation’s plans for future growth and more, in an interview with Lakshmpriya Nair

- Lakshmpriya Nair

What are the learnings from this pandemic that can be used to serve heretofore unmet needs?

COVID-19 pandemic is one of the greatest humanitarian challenges. The pharma and biotech industry has received this challenge with unprecedented courage and creativity. While we are all aware of the accelerated vaccine development efforts across the world, innovations around drug repurposing, immunity modulation, novel diagnostics, hospital-specific patient care-pathways, large scale disinfection methods, etc., have received tremendous investment and are being used as mainstream practices.

One of the biggest learnings from the pandemic has been that the realisation that the drug development regulations and the approval pathways need a complete overhaul. Response-time needed to tackle such exigencies is exponentially shorter than the typical drug approval pathway. We might need to redefine our approach to drug discovery and approval to be prepared for the future.

How is Windlas Biotech contributing to the fight against COVID-19?

Realising the urgency of the pandemic, Windlas introduced several adjunct products like safe-to-use-sanitizers, novel germicidal mouthwash and nasal sprays, convenience packs for complicated multiday multi-drug therapies, etc., for the benefit of patients in India.