Pharmaceutical Department will be spending around Rs 1397 crore, including Rs 1068 crore for new schemes and Rs 340 crore for interest subsidy scheme for Schedule M compliance, during the 11th Five Year Plan period.

Giving a major thrust to education and skills development, a major chunk of the total amount has been earmarked for the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali and the new six NIPER-like institutes. Total Rs 514 crore has been earmarked for the new NIPERS to put in infrastructure while the premier NIPER will get Rs 90 crore. Apart from this, the department is planning to spend Rs 69 crore for the new schemes at the Mohali institute, sources said.

For the new NIPERs also, the government will mop up additional fund to set up own infrastructure in the coming years. Government has set up NIPERs at Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Hajipur (Bihar), Kolkata (West Bengal), Rae Bareli (UP) and in Guwahati (Assam). Each NIPER would also have a separate mentor institute for overseeing the functioning of the institute and would primarily focus on disease prevalent in their regions.

Apart from the routine allocation of Rs 5 crore, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority will get Rs 60 crore for strengthening the agency and its infrastructure including setting up of more centres for better monitoring across the country.

Under the new schemes, the department will be spending Rs 340 crore for helping the small and medium units for complying with the Schedule M norms. This will be given as subsidy under the proposed Pharmaceutical Technology Upgradation Fund, being finalized by the department. Towards setting up of research and development parks for the pharma sector also, an initial amount of Rs 5 crore has been set apart. Another new scheme to be implemented is the critical assistance for WHO-prequalification for pharma PSUs and research at a cost of Rs 75 crore.

As the project-based support to the pharma public sector units, Rs 220.17 crore will be given while autonomous institutions will get Rs 100 crore during the Plan period. The department has also proposed a pharma promotion and development scheme at a cost of Rs 7.50 crore. A total of Rs 1396.17 crore thus has been sanctioned for the department for the Five Year Plan period.