The project to set up an Incubator that will focus on the pharma, biotech and chemical technology based enterprises at the Biotech Park in Hyderabad will take off soon. The committee looking into the needs of the pharma, biotech and the chemical-based industries, has completed its report and will submit it to ICMR, which is implementing the project.

According to Dr K V Raghavan, Director, IICT, and member of the three-member expert committee set up by the AP government, the large and medium pharma and chemical units within the state require such an Incubator wherein common skill pools and other facilities will be made available.

The proposed Incubator would have scale-up, kilo lab, custom synthesis facilities and will provide vital wherewithal for pharma companies to be better equipped to tap drugs going off patent after 2005 and also the new patent regime that comes into force. More than 120 drugs are expected to go off patent.

Dr Raghavan said that strategic joint ventures between the industry and the national laboratories to exploit the opportunities that might emerge in the post 2005 era were necessary. The proposed Pharma Development Fund, created by the state government with a corpus of Rs 10 crore, could play a vital role in this. "We expect to swell this fund to anything between Rs 100 and Rs 150 crore in the next five years," he said.

The broad objectives of the fund could be promoting research projects, technology upgradation, creation of common facilities like quality control, information services to pharma industry and focused training programmes for entrepreneurs in the industry.
The IICT, which was already associated with the Indian pharma and chemical industries in collaborative projects, was keen on associating with the industry to develop technologies that could specially tap the drugs going off patent, he said.