The Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) has constituted two awards to encourage Indian researchers who have carried out original studies in pharmaceutical sciences. The Scientist and Young Scientist award carries a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.

The awards will cover the broad areas such as pharmaceutical chemistry (New Chemical Entity) as potential therapeutic agents, improved chemical entity (ICE) (e.g. application of Chiral Chemistry) etc. Development of novel, non-infringing patentable processes for API's and analytical research) pharmaceutics (novel and improved drug delivery system), pharmacology: new models for evaluating drugs, pharmaceutical biotechnology / nanotechnology, pharmacognosy & phytochemistry: evaluation of plants and plant products for treatment of unmet medical needs.

It is open to Scientists in India. The award will be given away during the annual meeting of OPPI to be held in Mumbai. The selection of the awardees will be based on the recommendation of an independent board of juries.

For the consideration of the awards, the nominee should be a scientist of Indian Nationality and a Post-Graduate in pharmacy or life sciences from a reputed university. The work submitted for the award should be original and not to violate any intellectual property rights. It should have a commercial application and a patented work would be given additional weightage, according to Tapan Ray, director general, OPPI.