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| To be called AP Pharma Research and Development Fund ( APPRDF), the fund is aimed at providing encouragement to R & D in SME sector through research for manufacture of off-patent drugs in a cost effective manner, promote new product development capabilities of SMEs through incubators and scale-up facilities, and nurture industry-R &D- academic partnerships, alliances and linkages through greater collaboration and sharing of facilities.
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| The committee headed by APSFC chairman M Gopalakrishna, and comprising IICT former director KV Raghavan and ICICI Knowledge Park CEO Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, submitted its report to the state government on Saturday.
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| Speaking on the occasion, K Vidyadher Rao, the state industries minister, said that Hyderabad with its strong industrial base, developed infrastructure, human capital and competencies, excellent network of R & D and academic institutions was an ideal place for location of R &D facilities.
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| He said that the contribution of Andhra Pradesh to the Indian pharma sector was of the order of Rs 6,500 crore, accounting for a third of the total pharma industry turnover.
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| The committee recommended that an incubator facility be set up in a collaborative public-private partnership, which, over time could become a self-supporting institution and continuing programme.
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| According to the recommendations of the committee, the Rs 100 crore fund would be generated in five years. It consists of Rs 50 crore contribution from the State government through annual grant-in-aid of Rs 10 crore per annum, Rs 25 crore from Pharma Development Fund created by the Central government, Rs 15 crore from financial institutions and the balance Rs 10 crore from international agencies and linkage with other central government schemes on research and development commercialisation.
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| Gopalakrishna said that it perceived three broad options for setting up the pharma technology incubator.
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| These include setting up of a totally new facility in a site suited to drugs/pharma industry in Hyderabad, creating a networked facility by upgrading and expanding the existing facilities at IICT, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and ICICI Knowledge Park, and the transfer of R&D centre of Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals (IDPL) along with the pilot plant facility and appurtenances and the library for a pharma incubator with required modernisation inputs. The committee already submitted a proposal to the centre for transfer of IDPL facilities in favour of the proposed incubator. |
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