The state government of Maharashtra has proposed upgradation of drug testing and research laboratories attached to the state owned Haffkine Pharmaceuticals and at the Mumbai-based medical colleges in JJ Hospital, KEM Hospital, Lokmanya Tilak Hospital and also at the Medical College of Pune. The upgradation project will cost around Rs 50 crore. For this, the state government has already sought a financial aid from the Centre.

According to Digvijay B Khanvilkar, minister of health, Government of Maharashtra, the laboratory upgradation has been proposed on priority in the wake of the increased need of well-equipped drug testing facilities within the state, as there are cases of undue delays occurring in the event of sending samples for urgent medical and laboratory analysis to outside labs.

The minister, while speaking to Chronicle Pharmabiz, said that there are plans afoot to set up a Centre of Excellence in the area of drugs and medical research, to enable the pharmaceutical scientists and the medical students in the state to use the information and also the latest facilities and equipments for their study and investigations and also to conduct detailed clinical trials of drugs.

As a part of the upgradation programme, these laboratories will be equipped with modern instruments and infrastructure. Currently, according to the minister, most of these laboratories are either inadequately equipped or having poor infrastructure. Thus, the state has to depend on other laboratories even for emergency testing and analytical purposes, despite having these many government centres here, he said.

However, the government''s current plan is to make these facilities compatible with all modern research infrastructures and self reliant in case of equipments and technology. The Centre of Excellence will be set up at one of these facilities. Currently, the department of health is discussing various options to select an ideal centre, which has the potential to be upgraded to the best of all. Once this upgradation process is complete, the state can also attract the opportunities of clinical trails and other pharma related research works.