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Hyderabad , Nov. 15

THE expert committee on pharmaceutical sector set up by the Andhra Pradesh Government has recommended a Rs 100-crore dedicated fund to give a boost to the research and development (R&D) activities of pharmaceutical industry in the State.

The Andhra Pradesh Pharma Research and Development Fund is aimed at taking up initiatives to make available the latest facilities and requisite finance to small and medium pharma and drug companies to do relevant world-class R&D.

The committee is headed by the Chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Financial Corporation (APSFC), Mr M. Gopalakrishna, with the former Director of Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Dr K.V. Raghavan, and the Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Knowledge Park, Ms Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, as members.

The panel also recommended that an incubator facility be set up in a collaborative public-private partnership, which, over the time could become self-supporting, the Chairman, Mr Gopalakrishna, told presspersons, while submitting the report to the State Industries Minister, Mr K. Vidyadhar Rao, here on Saturday.

The development fund is expected to generate Rs 100 crore during the first five years. The probable sources of funding include Rs 50 crore from the State Government through annual grant-in-aid of Rs 10 crore per annum, Rs 25 crore from the pharma development fund created by the Union Government, Rs 15 crore from financial institutions and the balance Rs 10 crore from international agencies and linkage with other Union Government schemes on research and development commercialisation.

Mr Gopalakrishna said the committee perceived three broad options for setting up a pharma technology incubator. These include setting up of a totally new facility on a site suited to the industry in Hyderabad and creating a networked facility by upgrading and expanding the existing facilities at IICT, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and ICICI Knowledge Park.

The third key option is transfer of the R&D centre of Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Ltd along with the pilot plant facility and the library with required modernisation inputs.

The committee has already submitted a proposal to the Centre on transfer of the company's facilities in favour of the proposed incubator for which the Government responded positively. Takeover of facilities would enable a quick start-up besides being both time and cost-effective, he said.

According to Ms Deepanwita, the fund is also aimed at nurturing industry-R&D-academic partnerships, alliances and linkages through greater collaboration and sharing of facilities and new product development capabilities of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through incubators and scale-up facilities.

Dr Raghavan said the objectives of the fund include networking to synergise institutional strengths and support systems and in particular, quality laboratories. The fund would provide encouragement to R&D in the SME sector through research for the manufacture of off-patent drugs in a cost effective manner. The committee has identified over 50 off-patent processes in this regard.

According to him, most of the bulk drugs going off patent during 2000-05 were complex molecules requiring several synthesis steps. It was generally difficult for the European companies to get good profitability in the generics market and hence they prefer outsourcing.

To avail of the emerging opportunities in the global pharma sector, the committee finds the need to create R&D facilities at the earliest, Dr Raghavan said.

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