| Drugs
& Pharmaceutical Research Introduction
| The rapidly changing
economic, trade and intellectual property scenario, nationally and internationally
poses many challenges including the challenge of becoming leaders and competitors
globally. This necessitates a shift in the approach of pharmaceutical industry
to move away from manufacturing only known drugs through innovative process routes
to discovering and commercialising new molecules. The accumulated knowledge of
traditional medicinal system and large bio- |  |
| diversity of our country offer
a great advantage to drug industry. However, at present, most of the Indian drug
firms, due to their small size compared to international operators, are not in
a position to invest in a viable new drug development programme - drug development
being a risky, resource intensive & time consuming process. At the same time
several Indian academic institutions and national laboratories have established
impressive infrastructure and developed excellent expertise in selected areas
of drug development. Thus, this is a strong case for industry- institution interaction.
| The Programme Recognising
the profound influence of R&D on the prospects and opportunities for the growth
of the Indian Drug Industry, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government
of India mounted the programme on drug development during 1994-95 for promoting
collaborative R&D in drugs and pharmaceuticals sector with the following specific
objectives : - To synergise the strengths of publicly funded R&D
institutions and Indian Pharmaceutical Industry.
- To create an enabling
infrastructure, mechanisms and linkages to facilitate new drug development.
- To stimulate skill development of human resources in R&D for drugs
and pharmaceuticals; and
- To enhance the nation's self-reliance in
drugs and pharmaceuticals especially in areas critical to national health requirements.
During
January 2004, Government of India established Pharmaceutical Research and Development
Support Fund (PRDSF) and Drug Development Promotion Board (DDPB) under the administrative
control of DST with an initial corpus of Rs.150 crores. Interest accrued on corpus
will be utilized for supporting R&D projects jointly proposed by industry
and academic institutions/ laboratories and extend soft loan for R&D.
Special Features
Collaborataive R&D Projects - supports research in all systems of
medicines including setting up of facilities
- supports joint research
projects of industry and institution
- normally 50 : 50 sharing of
financial requirements between industry and institution
- research
undertaken by industry is funded 100% by industry
- institution share
is supported jointly by government and industry. Capital expenditure: 100% by
government, recurring expenditure: 70% by government and 30% by industry
- DSIR
recognition is desirable
Soft Loan for Pharma Industrial
R&D Projects - Loan amount upto 70% of the project cost.
- Loan
will be an unsecured one carrying a simple interest of 3% on reducing amount.
- Repayment of the loan will be in 10 annual equal instalments after the
project period.
- Interest during the implementation period will be
amortized and will be payable in maximum of 5 instalments after the project period
along with the instalment of principal amount.
Coverage The
programme supports both human and veterinary drug development for all types of
medicinal systems, be it traditional Indian medicinal system or the modern one.
The programme employs a two pronged approach involving exploratory drug design
and drug development on candidate molecules already identified on one hand and
providing a cutting edge to Indian Industry through innovative process for known/generic
drugs as well as crucial intermediates on the other. Some of the areas where support
could be considered are: (a) any component/stage in the innovation
chain of new drug development
(b) innovative/cleaner process technology for
known drugs/key intermediates, where India has a competitive advantage
(c)
chiral synthesis of drugs
(d) resolution of racemic drugs
(e) clinical
studies
(f) development of new formulations and standardization/testing of
traditional formulations Who
Can Apply ? Any Indian company/firm engaged in drug
development manufacturing jointly with: (a) National laboratory
under CSIR, ICMR, etc.
(b) University department/other academic institution
such as IIT, IISc., etc.
(c) Any other publicly funded R&D Institution Evaluation
Of The Proposals Project proposals are first reviewed, in strict
confidence, by an expert in the specific field and then considered by an Expert
Committee. Terms and Conditions An
agreement amongst the collaborating parties specifying the rights and obligations
and terms and conditions of the DST grant is essential. The terms and conditions
inter-alia include: (a) Ownership of intellectual property
generated in the project on agreed terms
(b) Review of the project by a Monitoring
Committee periodically
(c) 30% of the recurring expenditure (Institutional
component) to be met by the collaborating industry
Achievements
 | Please
download the Acrobate Reader to open .pdf file. |
For more information, please
contact:
Dr. Laxman Prasad
Adviser &
Head (TDT)
Department of Science and Technology
Technology Bhavan
New Delhi-110 016
Telefax: 011-26510686
Email: laxman at nic dot in
| 
Introduction
Scientific & Engineering 