The Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Research Programme (DPRP) under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to support the R&D projects through collaborations and soft loans to the private players has started finally yielding good results, with the companies completing the projects and returning the installments of their first loans.

"Returning the soft loans is a good indication to the success of the programme. Because, the companies are supposed to start paying back it only after the successful completion of the research projects. And it also makes encouraging to note that the companies do take it seriously by spending the amount for the said project and do not end up defaulters as is the case with many other government loans,'' a senior official from the DST said.

Cadila Healthcare, Ranbaxy, Indegene, Avra Synthesis Ltd and Biological BE were among those who have started repaying the loans taken during 2004-05 when DPRP programme was expanded to extend soft loans also. The pharma units get loans to the tune of 70 per cent of the total project cost at a simple 3 per cent annual interest rate with 10 years of installment repayment period beginning from the end of project duration.

Meanwhile, the DST has disbursed already Rs 21 crore under the programme in the first quarter of the current fiscal for which Rs 100 crore had been set apart in the budget. The allocation will be revised upwards, depending on the performance by September, sources said. Last year, the entire allocation of Rs 118 crore was utilised for collaborative projects, setting up of national facilities and soft loans.

A new facility will be setting up at IIT, Chennai for identifying potential drug targets through functional cell dynamics. DST will extend Rs 5 crore for the project and IIT will bear Rs 1 crore for the two-year pilot cell dynamics project, first time in the country. DST has also sanctioned a new project by Innova Synth Tech, Mumbai, for analogs of DNA-RNA for oligo nucleortides-based therapeutic medicines and diagnostic kits.

Last year, a total of Rs 60 crore was disbursed as soft loans and Rs 58 crore as grants-in-aid for collaborative projects and national facilities. As many as 10 new projects were approved for loans. The beneficiaries included Chem Biotech, Kolkata, Innova Synth Tech, Ranbaxy, Torrent, Cadila, Indegene, Mediclone Biotech, Chennai, 13 Herbs and Cubes from Delhi and Cellmax Pharma from Aligarh.

The facilities approved last year were bio-safety level IV facility at CCMB, Hyderabad, good clinical practices lab at BHU, Varanasi, cGMP pilot plant for extracting formulation and packaging of traditional formalities at IIIM, Jammu, clinical research facility to develop stem cell tech and regenerative medicines by Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences and CCMB, Hyderabad, and facility for advanced drug delivery system for nano-particle based biomaterials at Sree Chithira Medical Sciences in Thiruvananthapuram.