The Diario de Pernambuco celebrates e-Therapeutics "bringing to Brazil the fastest technology in the world for discovering new medicines" in collaboration with Grupo TCI and CURA.

Friday 28th July 2006, Recife – No. 209 - The Economy

Bioinformatics gains strength - By Micheline Batista

Grupo TCI from Pernambuco is bringing to Brazil the fastest technology in the world for discovering new medicines. Through a joint venture with an English company, e-Therapeutics, TCI will introduce to the country bioinformatics for the discovery of new uses for existing compounds used in medicines. In a second phase, they are going to build a factory in the pharmaceutical cluster which is already being developed between Pernambuco and Paraíba, where Hemobrás, a Federal Government manufacturer of blood derivatives, is the initial company. The initial investment in the partnership is R$2.5 million.

According to the TCI president, Roberto Marinho Filho, the project was introduced in São Paulo on Tuesday at a road show for the major pharmaceutical laboratories of the country. Now it has arrived in Pernambuco. LAFEPE, the State Government laboratory and Hemobrás are potential clients. “It was received very well in São Paulo. Unfortunately the biggest laboratories are still in the central-south of the country, but through this project, there is nothing stopping them establishing new production units in the northeast,” he added.

TCI has been established in the market for over ten years, and turned over R$47 million in 2005. This year they project an increase of 70% achieving R$80 million. In this first phase, the group estimates employing at least 15 PhDs to subcontract the bioinformatics services to the laboratories. The expectation is that by the end of next year, the new business will have turned over R$30 million.

In the second half of 2007, a new laboratory headquarters will be built in an area of 3,000 square metres in the pharmaceutical cluster, with operations forecast to start at the beginning of 2008. New drugs will be developed there to treat tropical diseases such as hepatitis C, chronic pneumonia, Chagas disease, tuberculosis, diabetes type 2 and Leishmaniasis.

CURA – A joint venture between TCI and e-Therapeutics was formed by the Central Única de Remédios Associados (CURA – “cure”), a social, non-profit organisation founded at the beginning of this year, by the Pernambuco and Paraíba governments.

“We have a partnership with NEPIC (North East Process Industry Cluster), responsible for one third of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the English pharmaceutical industry,” said the president of CURA, Romulo Queiroz. According to him, the pharmaceutical cluster could employ up to five thousand people in five years. As yet, CURA does not have the cost estimates, but it intends to employ a specialist consulting company to structure the cluster.

Academic experience

e-Therapeutics was founded at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne by the dedication of the Professor Malcolm Young, a scientist listed by the Sunday Times as one of the 18 biggest brains of the 21st Century. His research is based on the analysis of complex systems through bioinformatics. “It usually takes about two years to discover new applications for existing compounds. By using this approach, we can reduce the time to two weeks,” said Young, expert in complex systems.

This technology has been exported to South East Asia and India to discover new applications for existing drugs, but Brazil will be the first country to use the technology to discover new medicines. “The opportunities in Brazil are amazing. We have here a great spirit of entrepreneurship and an enormous natural compound library,” said Young, referring to the rich Brazilian biodiversity. The idea is to research the plants from the Atlantic Rain Forests, countryside and the Amazon.

For the president of CURA, Romulo Queiroz, this partnership between Grupo TCI and e-Therapeutics will enable Pernambuco and Paraíba to produce not only medication, but medication at a world level. “We will produce high value medicines,” he forecasts. The biotechnology cluster of London, which already has 700 companies, is an inspiration.