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The CSIR team working on a nanotechnology-based drug-delivery system for TB treatment, walked away with the laurels at the SA Bio Plan Competition. The nano-drug delivery system is capable of slowly releasing TB drugs in a controlled and sustained manner within the cells improving dose frequency, treatment time and toxicity.
Good work paid off: Hulda Swai (third from front) and her team ready to accept their prize |
The CSIR team with representatives from Emory University |
Competition
The SA Bio Plan Competition is organised by the Innovation Fund (IF) in collaboration with the biotechnology regional innovation centres and in partnership with Emory University of Atlanta, Georgia USA. The competition encourages the development of biotechnology businesses in South Africa. Participating teams worked closely with a team of mentors to fully develop a strategy and business plan that is evaluated by an international panel of experts.
The TB nano-drug delivery team made a clean sweep, walking away with the 'Best Presentation Award', the 'Best Presenter Award' and an opportunity for an internship in the USA for winning the 'best science to business opportunity'.
Hulda Swai, Lonji Kalombo, Boitumelo Semete, Tebogo Machethe and Phumza Langa received a cash prize of R150 000 for overall winner and R10 000 for the best presenter. Their business plan proposal will also receive R15 million from the IF.
Medical breakthrough
Clinical trials for the antibiotic Rifanano - a combination of the four main first-line TB drugs - are scheduled for 2012 and the drug should be available in government clinics in 2016, said Hulda Swai, principal researcher in biomaterials research.
She explained to SciDev.net (an online science and development news network) that Rifanano can be taken just once a week for two months and produces no adverse reactions. Most TB antibiotics must be taken daily for up to six months and often cause side effects, such as nausea and fatigue. The new nano-drug delivery system involves coating the existing anti-TB drugs with biodegradable polymer into nano-sized particles that are in turn coated with chemicals that make them stick to the intestine wall, enabling the drug to be more easily absorbed.
"When the white blood cells see these particles they take them up because they look like foreign objects. But doing so they actually transport them throughout the body while releasing their cargo," added Swai.
"We have not invented a new medicine, but have taken existing medicine and made it better." Team member Boitumelo Semete told SciDev.net that Rifanano will be targeted at government health departments in the developing world.
"TB is a poor man's disease, which means it's not a popular choice for the development of cures by commercially driven pharmaceutical companies," she said. "We are using local science and technology skills to make an existing treatment more effective and affordable for our people."
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