The number of patent filings by the seven National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education & Research (NIPERs), the premier institutions with national importance under the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), has grown almost two-fold in the first seven months of the current financial year, as compared to the same period of previous year.
The number of patent filings during the seven months of this year is also almost 72 per cent of the total number of patent filings by these institutions during the complete financial year of 2022-23, according to data available from the DoP.
DoP data shows that the NIPERs have filed 31 patent applications from April 1 to October 31, 2023, of which five patents were filed in the month of October. The filings, during the period between April to October, 2022 was 11, of which six were in the month of October, that year.
The number of patent filings during the seven months of this financial year is also almost 72 per cent of the total of around 43 patents filed during the financial year 2022-23. The total number of patents filed during the year 2022-23 (of 43 filings) was almost 43 per cent higher than the total 30 patent filings made during the financial year of 2021-22 ended March, 2022.
According to an earlier NIPER Research Compendium released by the DoP, the calendar year 2022 saw these institutions bagging 28 patents, granted by the Indian Patent Office, of which the highest of eight were from NIPER, SAS Nagar, Mohali, followed by NIPER Guwahati and Hyderabad with six patents each. NIPER Raebareli has received four patents, while NIPER Hajipur received three and Kolkata received one patent granted by the patent authorities.
There are 596 research papers published during the current financial year of 2023-24, till the end of October, of which 89 papers were published in the month of October. During the seven months from April to October, last fiscal year, the NIPERs published 534 research papers of which 78 were published in the month of October, 2022.
During the fiscal year 2022-23 ended March, 2023, the seven NIPERs published a total of 973 research papers, with a 22.4 per cent growth as compared to 795 research papers published during the previous financial year ended March, 2022.
The DoP is expecting the research works and innovation in the NIPERs will go up with the implementation of Scheme for Promotion of Research and Innovation in Pharma-Med Tech (PRIP) with an outlay of Rs. 5,000 crore for a period of five years, from the fiscal year 2023-24 to 2027-28.
One of the components of the scheme is for strengthening of research infrastructure through establishment of the seven National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education & Research (NIPERs) as Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in specific specialisations at a tentative cost of Rs. 700 crore over a period of five years. As per this plan, NIPER Mohali will be a CoE for Antiviral and Anti- Bacterial Drug Discovery and Development, NIPER Ahmedabad for Medical Devices, NIPER Hyderabad for Bulk Drugs, NIPER Kolkata for Flow Chemistry and Continuous Manufacturing, NIPER Raebareli for Novel Drug Delivery System, NIPER Guwahati for Phyto-pharmaceuticals and NIPER Hajipur for Biological Therapeutics
This will help in building specific research capacities in the identified priority areas in a focused time bound programme, tapping industry-academia linkage. The CoEs will strengthen the research infrastructure in Pharma-MedTech sectors in the country by providing advanced facilities to conduct research and will also help in nurturing talent pool by promoting industry academia linkage, said the Scheme.
The operational guidelines for the PRIP Scheme was uploaded on the Department website on October 25 and Department has sought the institutions has to furnish their proposal in consultation with the Board of Governors (BoGs) within a period of 30 days of issuance of the guidelines for setting up of the CoEs.
NIPERs would be required to furnish an undertaking that no regular manpower posts would be created out of the financial assistance provided under the scheme and expenditure on salaries of contractual workforce employed for the CoE after five years would be borne by them. NIPERs would also be required to ensure that CoEs achieve self sufficiency within five years of their establishment.
The progress of the CoEs will be monitored by an in-house CoE Committee under the chairmanship of the director of the respective NIPER. The research program and time-bound deliverables of CoEs will be fixed in consultation with the BoGs of the respective institutes. A Steering Committee (SC) will be set up under the chairpersonship of Secretary (DoP), with Joint Secretary (NIPER/R&D, DoP), representative from CDSCO, Financial Advisor (DoP) and Director/Deputy Secretary (NIPER/R&D, DoP) as members to review the progress of CoE, revise ceilings under non-recurring and recurring heads as deemed appropriate for respective CoEs during the tenure of the scheme, among others.
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