The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) SAS Nagar will soon act as a incubator for small scale units through its Small and Medium Pharmaceutical Industry Centre (SMPIC) established in 2009. NIPER would open its Technology Development Centre (TDC) a pilot plant facility available for the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) process development for SME Pharma companies on contractual basis as per NIPER rules.

Under the proposed plan, a SME pharma company dealing with herbal drugs may approach NIPER-SAS Nagar for development of extraction methodology for commercially important extracts from medicinal plants under consultancy mode as per NIPER consultancy rules.

The aim behind this move is to attract small scale companies to initiate drug discovery and make them more pro active towards it as there is an urgent need for drug discovery initiatives in the country. Providing its facility for SME's will help in leveraging limited skills and assets to generate higher efficiencies from synergies brought about through collaborations and partnerships.

SMPIC which is well-known for its trainings and educational programs will soon act as a incubator for the SME's with its strong vision for the drug discovery and development initiatives. According to professor K K Bhutani, director, NIPER, SMPIC aims to develop training programs which will be able to match the requirements of the SME pharma sector with the scientific and technical expertise available within NIPER.

He said, “This will require a synergistic approach between NIPER, SME sector and regulatory authorities. We plan to offer the spare time of common instruments for training, quality evaluation and other common facilities in NIPER for the benefit of the SMEs on a cost sharing basis, to utilise the expertise available with the faculty members of the institute in solving specific problems of SMEs.”

He informed that SMPIC is continuously imparting on hand-practical trainings on analytical instruments such as HPLC, GC, AAS, spectroscopic techniques to technical personnel from SME Pharma companies. “At this point, SMPIC can help by organising short duration seminar programs on current topics relating to regulatory affairs, GMP, GLP guidelines,” he added.

Professor K K Bhutani pointed out that SMEs need to develop a mechanism by which they will be able to recruit and retain this highly skilled and trained workforce.

At present the SMPIC is focusing on training science and pharmacy graduates in the instrumentation facilities and regulatory requirements and once its done these trained personnel will be offered responsible positions in SMEs in the pharmaceutical sector so that the latter are able to compete not only with the giants in the domestic pharmaceutical market but also become major players in the international scenario.