Notwithstanding the demand for more liberal support from the Government to the research and development in highly competitive pharma sector, the government commitment to the cause remained poor in comparison to the efforts made by the private sector.

According to the latest data compiled by the Chemicals department, a little above Rs 230 crore was only spent for R&D through different ministries during the financial year of 2007-08, making it a paltry sum compared to roughly Rs 2000 crore being spent by the leading 20 pharma companies in the country.

The department of science and technology disbursed Rs 118 crore during the year as soft loans and for collaborative projects under the Drugs and Pharmaceutical Research Programme (DPRP). The DST will be spending Rs 100 crore under the programme during the current financial year.

The share for pharma-related research under the aegis of Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) for the last financial year was limited to Rs 2.3 crore while the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) spent Rs 59.91 crore during the year. Department of Biotechnology used up Rs 8.61 crore during the same period.

The Chemicals department, mostly through the new drug discovery programmes by the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) utilised Rs 8.61 crore during 2007-08. The department sources said it would continue to assist these ongoing new drug discovery programmes for diabetes, TB, malaria and leishmaniasis during the current year too. The DSIR will continue to carry out new drug development in parasitic and microbial diseases, cancer, diabetes and asthma. However, the proposed spending for the current year was not clear.

"The government is providing various fiscal measures such as weighted tax deduction at the rate of 150 per cent under Section 35 (2AB) of Income Tax Act, 1961 and promoting outsourcing research by providing weighted deduction of 125 per cent to companies engaged in research and development,'' department sources claimed.

However, the government effort seems less than the desired level compared to the spending by private players. According Pharmabiz study earlier, the aggregate R&D expenditures of leading 20 Indian companies have gone up by 8.9 per cent to Rs 2,100 crore during 2006-07 from Rs 1,929 crore in the previous year despite few leading companies like Ranbaxy Laboratories, Ipca Laboratories, Strides Arcolab, Glenmark and Shasun Chemicals and Drugs cutting down their R&D spending. As per estimates, the top 15 global companies spent around $76.2 billion for the purpose during the year ended on December 2007.