The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) will set up a business development group to promote and market its various facilities and reach out to the industry clients with an added market thrust.

The recent meeting of the board of governors has approved the creation of the post of business development manger, who will head the activities of this group and the in-house capacity for the purpose. The NIPER has sent the proposal in this regard to the Pharmaceutical department for final clearance. He will also help link the activities of the proposed small and medium scale centre for the benefit of the industry.

The proposal for the business development group has been approved by the Centre and included in the 11th Plan and Rs 35 lakh was sanctioned as part of the budget allocation to initiate the group. The development manager, in the cadre of associate professor with MBA degree and having minimum 8-10 years experience in the pharma industry, is expected to rake in revenues by selling the services and facilities at NIPER in an aggressive manner, sources said.

The business development centre will increase the interaction with the niche area clients both within and outside the country and will take care of publicising the services for the stakeholders. The group will explore contract research opportunities, licensing of laboratories, consultancy arrangements and will a strong IPR portfolio so as to create a basket of commercial procedures and products.

NIPER is having a number of facilities which are under-utilised by the industry. Its national bioavailability centre which can carry out bio-availability and bio-equivalence testing, has carried out just 22 tests on fixed dose combination formulations of anti-TB drugs, which is well below the potential. Likewise, its National Toxicology Centre can carry out the regulatory toxicological testing on small animals as per Schedule Y and OECD guidelines. It has also a spare capacity which can be utilised by the industry.

The Institute is hoping to create a brand name and reach out to the clients through trade fairs, seminars and symposia and the in-house capacity headed by the development manager will guide this market thrust, sources said.