Description

The development of radioprotector is a huge challenge. For more than six decades, the research community has delved to get into the development of radioprotector. More than thousand molecules have been screened for and have shown their potential with varying radioprotective efficacy both in vitro and in vivo 1]. The research driven at US is based on patent potential of the newer radioprotective agents and every year the Armed Force Radiobiology Research Institute, Bethesda, US comes up with newer set of potential molecules. Similar trend is followed elsewhere in the world and in India too, a lot of work has been done on herbal radioprotectors as well as on antioxidants. The major problem at the research stage of the development of novel radioprotectors is the non-feasibility of cohorts for clinical trials and for this reason one has to entirely depend on the animal experiments. Worldwide, only a few molecules have undergone advanced animal experiments for radioprotective efficacy on Non Human Primates (NHP) models. The molecules are CBLB5, Ex-Rad, etc. However, among these, many are not currently pursued as they did not show potential in Non Human Primates (NHP) models. The one which is currently showing a lucrative potential is a growth factor based molecules which is presumably stored for any radiation induced hazard in the US, but it is extremely costly and it has to be replenished every 1-2 years to be sold in the market as a drug to prevent the adverse effect of radiotherapy. Hence, in a populous country like India, having more than a billion populations, this storage is a difficult proposition. Therefore, there is a requirement for developing a drug which could be easily available, have a mass distribution and readily acceptable by clinicians. Repurposing of clinical drugs is one such option, where clinically approved drug can be utilised for the same.