The Ministry of Science and Technology has sought Rs 1000 crore as fund for Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Research Programme (DPRP) for the next Five Year Plan period, in a bid to give a boost to the R&D activities in the pharma sector.

Against an outlay of Rs 217.63 during the 10th Plan, the Ministry has asked for Rs 1000 crore, aiming to disburse Rs 200 crore per year as soft loans and grant-in aids for the R&D proposals, the Ministry sources said.

``We have provision to give up to Rs 200 crore per year and we have made a request to the Planning Commission in line with that. However, it is yet to be seen whether the industry will come forward to make use of the entire allocation,'' a senior Ministry official said.

Though the Ministry may get Rs 1000 crore allocation for the five-year period from 2007, the actual size may go down as per the rate of utilization during each year, as witnessed in the past years.

It may be noted that though the Ministry initially allocated Rs 130 crore for the current fiscal year, it was later revised to be Rs 60 crore as there were only a few takers for the Government support.

The Ministry, which supports collaborative programmes, national facilities and pharma loans under the DPRP, disbursed Rs 9.75 crore during the financial year of 2002-03 and Rs 9.63 crore during the year of 2003-04. It rose to Rs 22.75 crore in 2004-05 and then Rs 115.05 crore during 2005-06.

The number of projects sanctioned during the first year of 10th Plan was 8 and it went to 10 the next year. It rose to 27 during 2004-05 and further to 37 during the next year. During the current financial year, the Ministry has already approved 10 proposals so far.

The Ministry funded a total of 117 proposals after the programme was launched in 1994-95. This included 77 collaborative projects, 23 national facilities and 17 pharma loans, the sources said.

As a result of the programme, six product patent and 12 process patent applications have been filed so far. The national facilities set up under the programmed included strengthening of pharmacological testing facilities at CDRI, Lucknow, facility at ISSC in Bangalore, central facility at CDRI in Lucknow, CCMB in Hyderabad, national facility on bioavaiability at NIPER, Chandigarh and pharmacokinetic facility at CDRI, in Lucknow.