A year after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approval for the construction of a new state-of-the-art campus for Central Drugs Research Institute (CDRI), work on the new facility is all set to begin. With contracts being signed, the works should start within 15 days, Dr C M Gupta, director CDRI informed Pharmabiz.

According to him, CDRI is to enter its most modern phase of existence with the new project taking off by month end.

The CCEA had approved Rs 197 crore under the Xth Plan for shifting CDRI into a new campus and had stated that the truly world class facility should be perfectly operational within four years of the release of funds.

CDRI is currently functioning from Chattar Manzil Palace, a monument of historic importance that needs to be handed over to the government of Uttar Pradesh. Since the existing building was not built for a research laboratory, there were a lot of limitations for CDRI to turn truly global. Despite several initiatives and approaches introduced from time to time to rejuvenate the existing structure it has not been possible to conform to Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) standards. Moreover, the building has shown signs of deterioration and has been declared unsafe by the duly constituted expert committee.

The new look Institute will now have acceptable working environment and improved safety to personnel. It will provide qualified and specialized trained scientific manpower to pharma industry, and provide quality service in quantity for regulatory pharmacology, toxicology, pharmacokinetics and metabolic studies to pharma industry.

The new facility has been envisaged with the vision to discover and develop new chemical entities in disease areas of national priority and life-style and ageing related disorders. The R&D laboratories in the new premises would conform to the current and emerging international standards. There would also be a flexible organizational structure comprising of only three major Divisions viz. Biological Sciences, Chemical Sciences and Pre-clinical Sciences in place. Leadership positions at all levels will be merit based with an inbuilt stringent mechanism for assessment and monitoring of projects.

The setting up of the Institute is expected to enable utilization of scientific expertise and core facilities developed over five decades. It is also to help meeting challenges and emerging needs of new drug discovery research and development.