With the Union Chemicals Ministry indicating its plans to pitch for more National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) model institutions for human resource development in drug sector, various states have come forward to ensure the presence of future NIPERs in their areas. States like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh have all shown interest in seeing such institutions coming up in respective states, it is learnt. The chemicals ministry has asked the states to give proper representation in the regard.
In a note submitted to the Union Chemicals & Fertilizers minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Ashok Bhatt, health minister of Gujarat has said that his state, being the biggest centre of pharmaceutical production, is rightly poised to make a claim for a NIPER. The minister has suggested that the government should either sanction a new institution or upgrade the existing state government run institute to the NIPER level. Similar requests also came from State Governments of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The state of Himachal Pradesh, which is turning into a fast developing drug manufacturing hub of the country, felt that there is an urgent need to develop pharmaceutical educational institutions there. Currently there are no world class pharmaceutical sciences institutions in the state, they felt.
It should be noted that the draft pharma policy, circulated for comments by the Union Chemicals Ministry had highlighted places like Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Guahati (Assam) as some of the potential sites for such institutions. It was suggested that these institutes would be started on the lines similar to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
NIPER, functioning under the aegis of Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers is an Institute of National importance set up by the act of Parliament. It is engaged in training the human resources in the field of Pharmaceutical sciences and has already created a brand name for itself. The post-graduate students of pharmaceutical sciences and pharmaceutical management of NIPER are in great demand and till now there is hundred per cent employment. The draft had also noted that on several forums there are demands for more NIPER-like institutes in different regions of the country. "Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance predicted that to double the pharmaceutical exports by 2010, there is need for highly trained manpower of one thousand per annum for the next five years and demanded the GOI should start at least ten more NIPER like Institutes. In 57th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress held recently at Hyderabad a demand for more NIPER like Institutes was made. Government of India has received requests from some State Governments showing their interest in setting up of such institutes," the draft had stated.
World over, pharmaceutical scientists are working on how to decrease the cost of drug discovery and development, increase the safety and efficacy of drugs. The aim of pharmaceutical research is to reduce the duration of the preclinical phase of drug discovery and development, decrease the attrition rate and cost of the clinical trials. To achieve this, India needs to strengthen the areas viz., in silico drug design, computation and simulation of biological systems (normal and pathologicial) for better understanding of drug and macromolecule interactions, early prediction of pharmacokinetics and toxicity, pharmacogeneomics, stringent quality control and impurity profiling solid state characterization of APIs and newer drug delivery systems.
To be front runner in pharmaceuticals R&D which is knowledge based, India needs highly trained human resources in the area of medicinal chemistry, computational biology in silico drug design, in vivo pharmacology, regulatory toxicology, pharmaceutical analysis, formulation, clinical trials, intellectual property protection, drug regulatory affairs and pharmaceutical care.