The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) will soon commence the preliminary work for establishing the seventh National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) at Madurai in Tamil Nadu, said DoP secretary Dr V K Subburaju. The DoP intends to kickstart the NIPER Madurai operation in the year 2017.  

Speaking to Pharmabiz on the sidelines of a meeting organized as part of the national pharmacy week celebration in Chennai last week, the DoP secretary said the government of Tamil Nadu has allotted 100 acres of land for the project and now it is time to start the work, for which a minimum of two years period is required. The Institute will be similar to those of IITs and will be in tie up with Madurai Kamaraj University. He said government of India is aggressively longing for uplifting the pharmacy education and research in the country.

Viewing future potential for job opportunities, the Madurai NIPER will give special significance to the area of biotechnology as today biotechnology products are made only in the private sector. Government wants to get into that area for which more NIPER like institutes will be opened in all parts of the country in tie up with medical and technical universities. Biotechnology production comes around Rs. 20,000 crore now, which will be increased to five lakh crores in next 12 years. The sector can give better employment opportunities to graduates of life-sciences and pharmacy.

Currently, NIPERs are located in Mohali, Hajipur, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Rae Bareli  and Guwahati. These centres are working under various institutes in each state. About 40 to 50 students are coming out from each institute every year. If these institutes are properly developed, more competent professionals can be produced. Even today, the pharmaceutical industry in the country lacks adequate number of competent professionals.

According to Dr Subburaju, the centre operating at Mohali in Chandigarh is the only one functioning in an established form. All the other units have so far not developed in their activities and they will be given more attention. In the case of Madurai centre, he said Tamil Nadu is the only state where 100 acres of land has been allotted for the purpose.

Further he said, on the lines of pharma parks, special parks like facilities will be developed for manufacturing medical devices. India wants to produce stents, pace-makers, X-rays and all other medical devices. Most of the devices are now imported from other countries.

In July 2009, a team of experts from the DoP had made two rounds of visits to the identified land in Madurai and a project report was submitted to the then union minister of chemicals & fertilizers. After that no development had been done on the NIPER Madurai project so far.

It was announced then that the Institute would start with three courses, pharma informatics, pharmaceutical biotechnology & pharmacology, and toxicology and biotechnology. Classes for the courses could be started either at Madurai Medical College or at Madurai Kamaraj University.