The Indian institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) of Hyderabad has undertaken 90 new assignments in 2003-04 with a contract value of Rs.20 crores. Galxo SmithKline Beecham of UK has released about Rs. 8 million recently as upfront fees to start a recently sanctioned project, Dr JS Yadav, director, IICT said on Thursday.

He said that IICT had performed well in the area of patents too. It has filed 62 patents including 44 overseas patents. And it was also granted 67 patents, including 35 Indian and 29 US patents during the financial year 2003-04. IICT will commercially release patents by exploring the suitable clients.

IICT is participating in 17 Task Force Projects and is working as a nodal coordinating laboratory for another two networked projects on green technologies and globally competitive processes. During the calendar year 2003, IICT has published 363 SCI papers.

The scientists at the institute have developed synthetic peptide based nano tubes and a nano material science lab has been setup in collaboration with AISIN Cosmos of Japan, he revealed.

The Institute has also released various processes, including methane sulphonic acid from methyl mercapton to Neuland Labs of Hyderabad, 4- vinyl aniline process to Anu's Laboratories, Hyderabad, in addition, it has submitted risk analysis and toxicity data reports to many clients in the last financial year.