`Industries investing in R&D to develop drugs'

Mangalore: The entry of India to the product patent regime has encouraged Indian industries to invest in research to develop their own new drugs, according to Dr Vidya B. Lohray, Senior Vice-President, Zydus Research Centre, Zydus Cadila, Ahmedabad.

Delivering the keynote address at the inauguration of the national conference on `Current trends in chemical research', organised by the Chemistry Department of Mangalore University, she said that many industries are ready to invest in the country because of the patent regime. Many have started development centres in the country.

Discovering and bringing one new drug to the market costs a pharmaceutical company approximately $900 million and takes an average of 10-12 years.

Continuous challenge


As society prospers, lifestyle diseases have started showing their presence among the masses due to resistant microbes. This has posed continuous challenges to find new medicines to combat diseases.

Many Indian pharmaceutical companies have embarked on this remarkable journey of new drug discovery, she said.

Patents have served as an incentive to the inventors for exclusively commercialising the outcome of their research.

Prof K.M. Kaveriappa, Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore University, who presided over the function, urged the industries to interact with academic institutions on their needs.

Citing the proposed mega investments of ONGC in the Mangalore Special Economic Zone, he said that this could lead to the establishment of numerous ancillary chemical industries in the region.In such as situation, the Chemistry Department of the University has a great role to play, he added.

Prof M.R. Gajendragad, former Vice-Chancellor of Kuvempu University, Shimoga inaugurated the conference.