Though the Planning Commission is yet to give its nod to the proposal for Rs.500-crore venture pharma fund, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) is planning to finalise the detailed project report (DPR) to turn India into a drug discovery and pharma innovation hub by the end of this month.

The Department had engaged Ernst & Young in November 2011 to prepare a detailed project report for developing a road map to enhance the national potential for drug discovery and innovation. The agency has submitted a draft report.

“A meeting was held in April with different stakeholders, including officials from the industry and scientific departments, to discuss the draft DPR. The Department has taken the feedbacks in the meeting and the DPR is expected to be finalized by the end of this month,” sources in the department said.

However, the proposal for launching a pharma venture capital fund with an outlay of Rs.500 crore for research is still pending with the Planning Commission for approval. The Department had included it in the report of the Working Group on Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Industry for the 12th Plan also, but was not yet approved.

Talking about the initiatives in the R&D sector, sources said fiscal incentives were being given to R&D units in pharma sector and steps were taken to streamline procedures concerning development of new drug molecules, clinical research and new drug delivery systems.

“New R&D set-ups with excellent infrastructure are coming up in the field of original drug discovery and some leading drug companies have licensed their new chemical entities to MNCs. It is gathered that a few products are expected to go for clinical trials in the next few years in the areas of anti-infective, anti-cancer and lifestyle segments,” an official said.

Meanwhile, the Rs.2000 crore venture capital fund announced in November last year by the Commerce Ministry to help the pharma industry in research and development did not make any progress yet. The ministry had also even disclosed that it was in talks with EXIM bank and other financial institutions to set up the fund.