Health Minister launches NIPER research portal

Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Dr Mansukh Mandaviya recently launched NIPER research portal along with Bhagwanth Khuba, Minister of State, Chemicals and Fertilizers in presence of Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog. The National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) research portal has been created with the aim to disseminate the information about all the NIPERs and their research activities, patents filed and publication information at one place, so that a industry and other stakeholders know about them.

Reiterating the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan and Jai Anusandhaan, Dr Mandaviya said that Research and Development (R&D) is one of the crucial pillars for a country’s economy. He said that we need to harness this energy of aspirations of all stakeholders and create a holistic ecosystem. Our expertise in generics can also be further expanded to other sectors, he added.

Pointing towards the importance of healthy competition both in the industry and the academia, the Union Minister noted that competition and demand is a necessity of research and innovation as this promotes quality ideas and solutions for our citizens. He stressed that research and innovation is a necessity for the sustained growth of the pharma sector.

The minister further stated that the country already has young talent and human resources, but we need to channelise them effectively through industry-academia cooperation. To enhance this collaboration, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has created this research portal to capture the research activities of all seven NIPERs, he informed. He said that the platform would help us in promoting this synergy and would be a boon for our industries, especially the MSME sector.

Dr Paul requested the government to streamline the funding pipeline and expedite the budgets allocated. He urged the industry to provide support like the NIPERs research fund for priority areas. He also encouraged NIPERs to create a vibrant scientific community by engaging with stakeholders and mobilising ideas of the young generation, promoting academic autonomy and delivering on their research goals.

Accentuating the importance of NIPER’s research programme, which focusess on the needs of the hour, S Aparna, Secretary, DoP, said that the importance of research and innovation has never been more important and more apparent than in the last two years of the global pandemic. We have seen the need for new drugs, re-purposed drugs, safer drugs, more efficacious drugs and the most affordable drugs to help mankind, she added. She highlighted that the portal will promote research work that is more relevant to the current evolving need of the sector and the requirements of the patient community.

The purpose of this portal is to authenticate availability of the research work that is ongoing. It will help other researchers and especially the industry to get in touch with the relevant organisation, so that they can work together and make the research more purposeful and meaningful. For long, research institutes have been working in silos. The research portal will try to bring together research institutions spread across different departments within government and also these institutions with industries.

The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers also requested all relevant research institutions like the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of AYUSH, ICMR etc., and even DRDO, where a lot of pharma sector-related research takes place to join this portal.