Honorable President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam will inaugurate Sun Pharma’s new research center in Baroda on December 14. This inauguration will formally put on a new threshold, the company’s initiatives in drug discovery innovation.

The SPARC research site in Baroda, built on a 16-acre campus, offers two-lakh sq ft of well thought out research floor area, housing modern labs for a committed team of 325 scientists, with plans to add 125 more.

The research center has been created in areas across process chemistry, dosage form development including novel drug delivery systems. Large labs have been built to house departments that have a critical role to play in the development of a new compound. Modern and exhaustively equipped lab areas in biological/analytical development include areas in pharmacokinetics, tissue culture and screening.

Sun Pharma already has one molecule in clinical trials in Europe, which is enroute to becoming a drug. Interesting projects are in the pipeline in three more therapy areas of interest. Intellectual property earning projects are also underway in novel drug delivery systems, with 2 projects about to begin clinical trials in Europe. A total of 33 patents have been received (across both drug discovery and reverse engineering projects) with another 331 filings awaiting approval.

Sun Pharma has been amongst the earliest Indian companies to invest in research at a firm 4 per cent of turnover or more since the year 1993, when the first research site was set up. These research investments and the technologies helped to increase turnover from Rs 32 crore in 1993 to Rs 1124 crore in 2004. The current R&D budget is pegged at Rs 75 crore for each of the next two years, with close to 50 per cent of this earmarked for investments in intellectual property earning, drug discovery innovation.