Guidelines on pharma innovation for NIPERs

The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DOP) has released Common Guidelines on Pharmaceutical Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the various academic institutions under its control to encourage innovation and research and facilitate entrepreneurship in the National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs).

The guidelines are formed after considering the new National Innovation and Startup Policy 2019, National IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) Policy 2016, and similar policies of other institutes. It aims to transform the current academic research into innovative and commercially applicable technologies and products; build a more robust ecosystem for nurturing the creativity and entrepreneurial activities which contribute to the honorable prime minister’s Atmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India mission.

These guidelines aim to encourage the faculty or staff members and the students to pursue entrepreneurship; formulate new policies and foster a better ecosystem to generate new innovative ideas across various disciplines which can be transformed into new financially successful technologies, products, and services; establish a new modern mechanism for technology development and technology transfer; create a new institutional framework for effective implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the policy; and to promote new pharmaceutical innovation and entrepreneurship for fostering the unmet therapeutic, socially impactful technologies delivering benefits to humanity.

These National Policy Guidelines are finalized with the approval of the Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers; They have been forwarded to all National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs) for taking up new further steps for their speedy and effective implementation, said the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DOP).

The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DOP) vision is to promote the Indian pharma sector as the leader worldwide in the quality medicines and to ensure the availability, accessibility, and affordability of drugs and various medical devices in the country. One of the several measures to achieve the national vision is concentrating on Research and Development (R&D) and innovation.

To achieve the same, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DOP), among the various other measures, has set up seven National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research – they have been declared as institutes of national importance all across the country for imparting better quality education and conducting high-end research.

National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs) have recently launched a common Research portal for the industry and researchers. They have also prepared a Common Research Programme based on the current national needs and their expertise and facilities. The Department of Pharmaceuticals is also soon coming up with a new national ‘Policy to Catalyze Research & Development and Innovation in the Pharma- MedTech Sector in India.’

The Pharma sector has been mainly focused as the central government has noticed its potential after it played a critical role in India’s and the world’s fight against COVID-19. The country’s pharma industry made it the only nation that is the birthplace of two different COVID-19  vaccines besides providing root support to the world’s most extensive vaccination campaign that the state and central governments carried out to vaccinate the entire population of the country. The pharma sector had also witnessed astonishing growth in its exports in the years of COVID-19 until the last year, when it faced some new challenges that affected the growth rate. As for pharma imports, medical equipment forms the bulk of these, and the current union government wishes to change that by encouraging their manufacture locally.

Despite being a global leader in the pharma industry, India has witnessed a very minimal number of patents and copyrights in this industry, and the country’s national government is set to change that. In a related measure, the government is also working to encourage the AYUSH sector through various decisive actions.