IIT-H develops oral drug for fungus

Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H) have claimed to have come up with an oral solution for black fungus, and is now ready for technology transfer for large-scale production to pharma companies.

The team of researchers at the institute, comprising Prof. Saptarshi Majumdar and Dr. Chandra Shekhar Sharma from the Department of Chemical Engineering, who have studied the Kala Azar virus and its treatment since 2019, said that presently the Kala-Azar treatment is being used for black and other fungus in the country and its availability and affordability make it essential to allow emergency and immediate trial of this oral drug fabricated nanofibrous tablets of Amphotericin B.

The researchers said that oral administration of the AmB drug is the most comfortable and effective route. Towards that, they have developed a 60 mg tablet, to be priced at approximately ` 200.

“The drug is to be administered slowly at sustained rates to negate the toxicity in the drug. The mechanism of the oral drug is developed at 1 mg per body weight”, said Dr. Sharma.

However, the drug has so far not been tested on black fungus patients. The researchers have said that because there is no difference in the treatment of the two different fungal infections, the need to test it on patients does not arise.

“The purpose was to increase drug absorption and reduce aggregation, to lower the drug toxicity. For this, the team has selected gelatin, an FDAapproved polymer, as an excipient for drug molecules,” they added.

The technology developed has been made free from patents, so that it can be mass-produced and is available to the public, Dr Sharma said.