The central government is to notify the establishment of a Drug Development Promotion Board (DDPB) on the lines of the Technology Development Board for managing the funds that has been earmarked for the promotion of research and development in drugs and pharmaceuticals. The notification, expected in a month, would announce the existence of the Pharmaceutical Research and Development Support Fund (PRDSF) with initial corpus of Rs.150 crore. DDPB is to be under the administrative control of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), it is learnt.

While the centre has already sanctioned Rs.25 crore as the first installment towards the corpus amount, the balance would be allotted within three months (in the beginning of FY 2004-05). The interest accrued from the corpus is to be given to the industry/institution as soft loan for a nominal interest of 3 per cent.

The DDPB, to be chaired by secretary, DST, is to have about 14 members drawn from various departments like Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Health and Family Welfare and AYUSH, directors of apex research institutions like Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), pharmaceutical associations like Indian Drugs Manufacturers Association (IDMA), Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (BDMA), Indian Medical Association (IMA) etc. The Planning Commission is also to have its representative in the Board. While the DDPB would be in charge of managing the funds, the government would set up a committee of experts to scrutinize the eligibility of the R&D proposals that would reach the Board. The expert committee will comprise of scientific persons and would not have any representatives from either other departments or private organisations.

The recovery of the loans would begin only towards the completion of the project duration. While the interest accrued would have to be paid back in five installments, the principal amount needs to be returned only in 10 installments. According to DST sources, the applications for availing the loan facilities for carrying out R&D activities have already started reaching the department. It is felt that once the DDPB gets operational, the members would be able to source more money as corpus through various sources, thereby fulfilling the industry's desire to have much more amount to be dispersed as loan.

The DST sources consider the progress made in the establishment of DDPB as a major success due to the short period with which the department proposal got cabinet clearance. It should be noted that the department submitted the proposal on December 30, 2003 and came out with the Cabinet approval in a record 15 days time.