With the Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Research Programme (DPRP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) finding more and more takers and with steady flow of proposals, the government has hiked the allocation from Rs 60 crore last year to Rs 118 crore for the current year for new collaborative projects, national facilities and soft loans.

The allocation was almost doubled in view of the fact that the DST has utilized 100 per cent of its revised estimate of Rs 60 crore under the DPRP during the fiscal year 2006-07 which saw encouraging response from the pharma companies applying for R&D fund support, sources said.

A total of Rs 23.5 crore was given as soft loans to the pharma companies for new projects. Ranbaxy got three soft loans while Lupin got two during the year. Strides Arco Lab Ltd, Bigtech Pvt Ltd, Cadilla and Promaid Exports were the other beneficiaries. Thus a total of Rs 35 crore, including Rs 11.5 crore for already ongoing projects, was disbursed to the pharma firms.

Remaining Rs 25 crore was given as grants and aids for new collaborative projects and setting up of national facilities. IICT with BBIL, Hyderabad, ICCB with Vishwabharati University of West Bengal and East Indian Pharmaceuticals, Kolkata, Jadavpur University with Stadmed of Kolkata, DIPSAR with Promaid Exports Ltd of Gurgaon were the four new collaborative projects funded by the DST, sources said.

Seven new national facilities were set up during the year. They were established at National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, Ramachandra Medical College and Research Centre, Chennai, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai, Centre for Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, University Madras, and National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai.

The projects yielded a number of happy results during the last year. At least six product patent applications were filed as a result of the DST-funded projects. A number of high quality scientific papers were published in reputed journals. As a whole, the programme was getting more and more enthusiasm from the pharma companies, sources said.