Centre to seek NRI support for stepping up R&D fund

Gireesh Chandra Prasad G I - Mumbai

The Union Government is likely to seek NRI support to raise the Rs 150 crore pharmaceutical research and development corpus fund five fold during the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ to be organised in New Delhi early January.

Official sources told Express Pharma Pulse the government is exploring ways to enhance the fund to Rs 750 crore as suggested by Dr Mashelkar and would showcase the investment opportunities in the country during the forthcoming event in the capital, where NRIs are expected to take part in large numbers.

A senior Department of Science and Technology (DoST) official, when asked if this would require a modification of the cabinet note on the fund pending with the DoST, said it was independent of the proposal to step up the fund.

‘‘The consultation process on the cabinet note is on and our immediate concern is to get it operational. Once the consultation is over, it would be placed before the cabinet and we are optimistic that by January next year, everything would be in place,’’ said Dr Laxman Prasad, Advisor and Head (Technology Transfer), DoST.

External Affairs Ministry officials had announced earlier this month the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas would leverage the potential of the global Indian family and showcase business and investment opportunities in key sectors including science and technology.

The DoST, which already has a drugs and pharmaceuticals research programme set up in 1994-95, has, under its publicly funded R&D institute-industry collaborative programme, funded 40 projects and have filed for four product patents and 12 process patents so far.

The projects comprise 18 new chemical entities, two new vaccines, four assay systems, four drug delivery systems and 12 herbal drug projects. The product patents filed for include a novel cancer treatment drug, peptide analogs for cancer treatment and oligospirostanoside from Asparagus racemosus, while the assay systems developed include purification and charecterisation methods for Cox I and Cox II.

Under this programme, the industry bears 30 per cent of the recurring expenditure.