Mumbai: Nicholas Piramal India Ltd has initiated two basic research programmes to screen patient samples in the diabetes and cancer segments in order to develop biomarkers that could eventually lead to a targeted new drug development.

The company has recently forged a cancer-related alliance with Chennai''s Apollo Hospitals Group for the molecular profiling of tumors.

NPIL will do a "blind" study of the tumour samples provided by the hospital and compare the data with the hospital''s patient response to conventional therapy.

Biomarkers could be an external substance or a feature in the human body that helps indicate a pattern in the patient''s response to treatment.

A tool used for target identification, the biomarker technology is getting more refined over the years and it improves the chance of discovering a drug, observes a senior researcher with a clinical research organisation.

The company is finalisng a similar study with the diabetology group of Chennai''s Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute that would help evaluate specific markers for diabetes.