Bangalore, March 24 (IANS): Chemsys, a subsidiary of Indian pharma major Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd, has got an additional $3.4 million (Rs.21 crore) from a US-based research institute to develop new drugs for combating tuberculosis (TB) in the sub-continent, it was announced Monday.

“We are extending our collaborative partnership with the Seattle-based Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) for TB drug discovery,” Jubilant drug discovery services president Subir Basak said in a statement Monday, which marks "World TB Day".

As part of the Lilly TB drug discovery initiative (LTI), collaboration in chemistry support since 2009 had generated hundreds of novel chemical entities, including those identified for exploration.

“We have been offering support and expertise in synthesis of chemical entities for early research in TB,” Basak recalled.

“We are glad the collaboration is leveraging our chemistry talent and experience in anti-bacterial research,” Basak noted.

Impressed with commitment and engagement of Chemsys in support of TB drug discovery over the years, IDRI vice-president Tanya Parish said the joint initiative would enable Jubilant to develop new drugs to combat the dreadful disease.

“The novel initiative will allow us to expand our efforts through Chemsys to access additional synthetic and medicinal chemistry capabilities,” Parish pointed out.

As a founding member of the LTI and TB Drug accelerator partnership, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the institute (IDRI) was in 2010 granted $7.8 million for identifying new leads and produce drugs to treat TB.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the causative agent of human tuberculosis, a devastating infectious disease that kills about 1.5 million and infects over eight million people each year.