The NIPER Hyderabad is in the process of setting up a national centre for research and development (R&D) for the bulk drugs at an estimated cost of around Rs 30 crore. This centre will be set up in the NIPER's campus in Hyderabad and will focus on addressing the problems of bulk drug manufacturers across the country.

NIPER has already called proposal for setting up the national centre for R&D for bulk drugs and is waiting for the project report from the concerned authority to be submitted. Dr Ahmed Kamal, director NIPER-Hyderabad informed that they are expecting to get a detailed project report from the short listed candidates within three month.

"Once we receive the project report it would be submitted to the ministry and later on they will decide whether the funding will be incurred through the government funds or through public private partnership (PPP)," he added. It is expected that the whole project will cost about close to Rs 30 crore.

Every NIPER in the country will soon have a national centre for some speciality in their campuses. Dr Kamal said that the main reason behind setting up an R&D centre for bulk drugs in NIPER Hyderabad is to address the large presence of bulk drugs manufacturers in the state. Hyderabad has emerged as a major drug manufacturing city of the country with a presence in the global market. It offers excellent opportunities for the growth of bulk drug industry in the country due to availability of trained and skilled manpower, R&D facilities, etc. The centre would help in attaining and helping the pharma companies to conduct research on their products from laboratory scale to bench scale production.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry which ranks fourth worldwide accounting for about eight percent of the world's production now produces bulk drugs belonging to all major therapeutic groups requiring complicated manufacturing technologies as well as formulations in various dosage forms. Indian exports are destined to more than 200 countries around the globe including highly regulated markets of US, Europe, Japan and Australia.