The Hindu Business Line : DST sets up Rs 150-cr pharma research fund

THE Department of Science and Technology has set up a Rs 150-crore fund that will provide support to the Research and Development (R&D) effort of pharmaceutical companies.

"The fund was announced last year, but then it only had a corpus of Rs 10 crore. Now that has been increased to a budgetary grant of Rs 150 crore and it will become operational by the next financial year," Dr V.S. Ramamurthy, Secretary in the Department of Science and Technology, said here on Sunday.

Speaking at the inauguration of a symposium on genomics and proteomics organised by Zydus Cadila Healthcare Ltd, Dr Ramamurthy said that the Government wanted to provide incubation and risk underwriting support to companies engaged in drug development. In addition to the Rs 150-crore fund, nearly a third of the Department's annual budget of about Rs 250 crore was earmarked for the life sciences sector. The Secretary said that apart from the lower cost of intellectual capabilities, India offered several advantages for pharmaceutical research and urged the companies to step up investments in R&D.

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