The Union Government is likely to announce the exact mode of dispersal of the Rs 150 crore Pharma R&D Fund within a month. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), the agency in charge of planning and executing the utilization measures of the fund is to have a meeting with all concerned with indigenous pharma R&D in the coming weeks, it is learnt.

Informing this to Pharmabiz.com, Dr V S Ramamurthy, secretary DST said that the meeting of representatives from industry, institutions and the government would finalise upon the exact areas where the money has to be invested. Considering the fact that the amount at the disposal of the department each year is just Rs 10 crore, the government would be keen on using the money to develop and strengthen national facilities which can be shared and made use of by the entire industry. "We do not intend to disperse the amount to individual R&D companies. The funds would be used to develop state-of-the-art testing facilities for conducting new drug research as well as world-class clinical research facilities within the country," he said.

However the facilities need not necessarily be coming up in the government institutions alone. Criteria for enabling private institutions also to set up such facilities are likely to be finalised.

The Pharma R&D Fund is thus to be made use for a specific purpose which is different to that of the mandates of Technology Development Board or the Drugs & Pharmaceutical Research Programme (DPRP).

While TDB was constituted in September 1996 to provide financial assistance to industrial concerns and other agencies for attempting development and commercial application of indigenous technology or adapting imported technology to wider domestic application, DPRP is meant for promoting collaborative R&D in drugs and pharmaceuticals sector with specific objectives to synergise the strengths of publicly funded R&D institutions and Indian pharmaceutical industry in all systems of medicines and to create an enabling infrastructure, mechanisms and linkages to facilitate new drug development. The Pharma Fund is to be utilized to augment the efforts that are being taken up through the existing programmes and help the industry take a lead in clinical drug research and development.

The creation of the R&D Fund for pharma industry was first proposed in the Union Budget 2000-2001.