The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), which has become a global R&D provider, has made significant contributions to the fields of drugs & pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. In the year 2001-02, it has filed as many as 136 patents, including 92 with international patenting agencies. Almost 70% of the applications included catalysis and drugs and pharmaceuticals.

Addressing a press conference to coincide with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of CSIR, of which IICT is a constituent National Laboratory, Dr K V Raghavan, Director, said the Institute ranked first in overseas patents, second in research publications and fourth in external earnings among the 38 CSIR laboratories. Giving details of the R&D efforts of the institute, Dr Raghavan said it had made significant strides in the fields of drugs & pharmaceuticals, agro-chemicals, organic intermediates, catalysis, oils & fats, biotechnology etc.

Talking of IICT''''s contribution to indigenous technology development and industry collaboration, Dr Raghavan said IICT and SPIC had jointly developed a technology for Pyrazinamide, an anti-TB drug of high commercial value. While pilot plant studies had been carried out jointly at SPIC Tuticorin, IICT had designed a commercial scale 500-tonne capacity plant to manufacture pyrazinamide.

According to Dr Raghavan, the following were some of the major achievements of the Institute in the fields of Drugs & Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology.

IICT has evolved the blueprint for India''''s first biotechnology incubator (pilot plant), which will be set up at Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park in Hyderabad. The basic objective of the incubator is to provide a well-equipped scale-up and testing facility for the development of new biotechnologies and to encourage new entrepreneurs to set up biotech industries related to enzymes, organic intermediates, anti and probiotics, RNA-based products etc. The project will cost Rs 35-40 crore.

IICT has developed highly competitive processes for four new bulk drugs - Losartan, Doxazocin and Lacidipine on laboratory scale and Amyl Metacresol on pilot scale - for different sponsors who are trying to commercialise the technologies developed by IICT. The institute has also developed a pilot scale process for the manufacture of Lamda Cyhalothrin, a synthetic pyrethroid to be manufactured for the first time in the country.

The Institute is developing bioinformatics for vector borne diseases, a software that can predict outbreak of diseases. It has completed studies on filariasis in Andhra Pradesh and the database developed by it is now being used by the governments of AP, Maharashtra and Haryana. It has completed studies on malaria control in Assam under a DRDO sponsored programme and similar sponsored programmes had been implemented in Manipur, Mizoram and Sikkim. The studies on Japanese Encephalitis and Dengue fever are in progress in Andhra Pradesh.

A new anti-ulcer herbal formulation with improved therapeutic properties in collaboration with Kottakkal Arya Vaidyasala, Kerala, CDRI (Lucknow) and IICB (Kolkata) under a CSIR coordinated programme on New Bioactives is undergoing pre-clinical tests. On successful completion of these tests, the new formulation will go for clinical trials as per international norms. This is the first time in the world that a purely herbal based medicine has been developed to control ulcers.

The domain of application of the new HPLC-UV Fingerprinting technique developed and patented by IICT is increasing rapidly. The recent initiatives of IICT under the New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) and other national programmes have shown that the new technique can be used to explain Ayurvedic concepts, detection of adulteration in traditional drugs and identification of seasonal variation of raw materials apart from product standardisation. Encouraged by these developments, IICT is planning to patent this invention in more than 60 countries.

In interesting industry-laboratory collaboration, IICT demonstrated a new laboratory process for conversion of Methyl Mercaptan , a waste product of ranitidine into a commercially useful Methane Sulphonic Acid with a good market value. The IICT process will eliminate the Mercaptan pollution from ranitidine producing bulk drug units. The scale-up work is in progress and the process will be ready for commercialisation in six months. Mercaptan pollution had been causing great concern in Hyderabad recently.

IICT is developing globally patentable nanoparticle based catalysts for nitration of o-xylene and pre-reforming hydrocarbons under NMITLI programmes. The new catalyst systems have proven high efficiency and best selectivities.

IICT is also involved in a consortium with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and National Aerospace Ltd (NAL) to produce Synthetic Aviation Lubricants (SAL) indigenously. The five-year project, to be launched in October, will use vegetable oils as the feedstock, instead of petroleum products.

The Institute will coordinate two task force programmes on globally competitive and clean technologies to be participated by 11 CSIR laboratories with a total budget of Rs 50 crore. The special task force programmes will develop and prove commercial viability of technologies based on national product based drugs, clean ammoxidation, hydrogenation, alkylation and oxidation, Ti / TiO2 synthesis, new functional dyes, fluoro-organics etc. The project duration is five years.

Dr Raghavan said the new facilities at IICT included a world-class animal quarantine and testing facility, an AP Drug Controller recognised facility to assess " health of pharmaceutical products" ( testing of drugs), a sophisticated facility for assessing the surface characteristics of materials and catalysts and an Automated Evaporator for rapid screening of natural product based new bioactives.

Some highlights of IICT''''s 10th Plan goals include: Chemical precursors for micro electro mechanical sensors (MEMS), biodiesel from non-conventional oilseeds and energy plantations, water splitting for hydrogen generation employing solar energy, gasification of biomass, chemical genomics, novel reaction media for clean processes, gene based drug delivery systems, scale-up of biotechnologies and high performance gas adsorbents.