A domestic knowledge-based company has produced a nano-based product that can be used to detect drug sensitivity.
The product, based on nanotechnology, is used to identify the appropriate antibiotic for medical treatment.
Karma Azma Andish Development and Equipment Company is the manufacturer of antibiogram tablets or disks containing nanoparticles, the news portal of Vice Presidency for Science and Technology reported.
Antibiogram or drug sensitivity tests use colored tubes based on the family of antibiotics to identify the most effective antibiotic against microbes in pathological laboratories, which help the patient recover soon.
Faster and more accurate results, as well as higher quality and ease of use, are the main advantages of this nano-based product.
Erythromycin, penicillin, sulfonamide, tetracycline and vancomycin are among a large class of drugs that prevent the growth of bacteria (bacteriostatic) or kill bacteria (bactericidal). Each class of antibiotics has an effect on specific bacteria and will not affect other microorganisms and viruses.
Different samples taken from a patient, including blood, feces, urine and sputum, are usually subjected to an antibiogram.
After the growth of the bacteria in the appropriate growth medium, the sample undergoes the staining process (also known as Gram staining) before the antibiogram test is performed.
After the sample is cultured in the growth medium, the antibiogram disk is placed in it and the result is checked after 2-4 days.
Karma Azma Andish Development and Equipment Company has also produced an antibiograph device for testing, which can be used independently without a need for a computer.
Detecting Metabolic Diseases in Babies
A domestic knowledge-based company has produced a device that helps detect metabolic diseases in newborns through a blood test at the time of birth.
Mobtakeran Agah Hadaf Company’s development of the device using new technologies helps treat diseases in the early stages, the news portal of Vice Presidency for Science and Technology reported.
Metabolic disorders are hereditary biochemical diseases in which the metabolic pathways of various substances in the body are disrupted, mainly due to the dysfunction of an enzyme or its cofactor, a receptor, substance transporter, membrane, or structural component.
Inherited metabolic disorders fall into different categories, depending on the specific substance involved and whether it builds up in harmful amounts (because it’s toxic and can’t be broken down), it’s too low or it’s missing.
Some metabolic disorders can be diagnosed by routine screening tests done at birth while others are identified only after a child or adult shows symptoms.
These diseases are mostly inherited in an autosomal recessive manner, which means a family marriage, or a history of related death, or a similar disease in the family. Other types of inheritance, especially through mitochondrial genes, are also seen among patients sufferng from these diseases.
Congenital metabolic disorders can have irreparable impacts on people’s quality of life and sometimes lead to irreparable damage such as mental and physical retardation, and in some cases cause the death of babies.
Diagnosing these diseases at birth and then taking simple measures such as adjusting the diet can eliminate the effects resulting from these diseases in most cases and moderate the huge costs imposed on the patient and the society.
Accordingly, fast and reliable tests are needed to ensure timely and error-free diagnosis of these diseases, especially by the time of birth.
Also, these tests should be able to simultaneously track all metabolic diseases in one analysis, so that immediately after the diagnosis of the metabolic disease, preventive measures can be taken to control it from the birth of the baby.
The domestic device for this issue has all the essential features and can track all the metabolic diseases in one test.
Mainly designed for medical centers and hospitals, the domestic device can prevent a significant currency outflow needed to import foreign counterparts.
Int’l Patent for Domestic Covid-19 Medicine
A knowledge-based company has recently received an international patent certificate for a medicine that reduces the side-effects of Covid-19.
“With the efforts of 40 Iranian researchers from eminent domestic universities, Saliravira was unveiled in the third month of the previous Iranian year [May 22-June 21, 2021], for which it received a domestic patent certificate,” Reza Ramezani, the CEO of Mim Daroo Company, was quoted as saying by the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology.
“The code of ethics and clinical trial license were obtained from the Iran University of Medical Sciences, which is a branch of the World Intellectual Property Organization in Iran, and then pre-clinical and clinical trials were conducted,” he added.
Ramezani said the company signed a contract with a reputable firm in Europe to assist in completing the technical aspects of international patenting, in which Iran does not have much experience.
“We studied about 50 pharmaceutical patents to create a comprehensive patent system and handed all our documents to a foreign law firm. This is how we were able to complete technicalities to get the patent for Saliravira and finally our invention was registered internationally,” he said.
“When such a medicine is produced, it should be patented first in order to cooperate with large production companies at the international level, which requires a lot of time and budget.”
The CEO of this knowledge-based company noted that all these efforts were aimed at cooperating with major companies in the production and distribution of this medicine at the international level.
“After patenting this medicine, we signed a contract with a reputable medicine distribution company. They announced that if our product is produced in Europe, they will take responsibility for its distribution. Fortunately, this issue is in the final stage and we are in the process of obtaining relevant permits to do this,” he said.
Last year, when the country experienced one of the highest Covid-19 peaks, Saliravira, which was the first completely Iranian medicine for the treatment and prevention of Covid-19, was produced by this company at the Pardis Technology Park.
