NIPERs to play an immense role in development of bulk drug & medical device parks: Gowda

New Delhi: 'National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs) have immense role to play in the development of upcoming bulk drug and medical device parks,' said Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers DV Sadananda Gowda. The Fertilizers Minister Gowda along with Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya held a review meeting on the functioning of NIPER Mohali and Rae Bareli through video conferencing on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by Secretary (Pharmaceuticals) Dr PD Vaghela and other senior officers of the Department of Pharmaceuticals.

Gowda said that NIPER should focus more on drug discovery for diseases like TB, malaria, kala-azar, cancer, diabetes, obesity etc. Drug repurposing and drug development could be other areas, he added. NIPER like Mohali should develop their own Centers of Excellence as R&D is thrust of the government under PM Modi.

Also read: Govt finalising guidelines for setting up the bulk drug, medical devices parks in India

He also said that support to Industry, especially to MSME sector through the extension of services like testing, consultancy and incubation centres, is the need of the hour. Every prospect of revenue generation must be explored and NIPERs should evolve into self-sustaining premier institutions. There is a need to strengthen industry-academia linkages which can also be leveraged to commercialize patents which are held by NIPERs.

While Mandaviya said that research work that can have a large impact on the well-being of the people should be given priority and expedited.

NIPER-Raebareli's Director Dr SJS Flora who is Director in charge of NIPER Mohali gave a brief presentation on various issues related to NIPER Mohali and Raebareli. He said that NIPER Mohali has been ranked third and NIPER Raebareli ranked 18th by NIRF in the pharmacy sector. He also apprised that NIPER joint entrance examination will be held on September 28, 2020, with all safety precautions, and the academic session may start from October.

NIPER is a national level institute in pharmaceutical sciences with the objective of becoming a centre of excellence for advanced studies and research in pharmaceutical sciences. At present, there are seven NIPERs across the country at Mohali, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Raebareli, Guwahati, Hajipur and Kolkata. The Government of India has declared NIPER as an 'Institute of National Importance'.

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