Glaxo India & Burroughs Wellcome (India) and OPPI president, Mr HR Khusrokhan stated this while lamenting on the three decades of price control and lack of clinical infrastructure at a one day symposium on R&D organised here by the Chemtech Foundation. India needs a climate that will stimulate innovations and proper research infrastructure. Research on genetic and proteomic, biotechnology and process are the options left with India, he said.

"Only three out of the 10 marketed drugs are able to recover the average R&D costs while lot of expenditure incurred on R&D is not recovered at all", Khusrokhan said. Government incentives by way of research parks, quality of academic institutions like government laboratories and an informed investor community which would appreciate knowledge based industry is the need, Mr Khusrokhan added. Delivering his key note address, ministry of science and technology, secretary, VS Ramamurthy, said that the establishment of the technology development board is a recent initiative towards technology transfer and commercialisation. The board provides assistance to industries either by way of soft loans or equity participation to develop and commercialise indigenous technologies or to adapt imported technologies for wider applications, he said. Commenting on the future perspective of R&D, Novartis Pharma , senior manager, R&D, Dr Ajay Bhatnagar said that a paradigm shift is taking place in the drug delivery process.

New Glaxo vice-chairman
Former Glaxo India managing director, and current Glaxo Wellcome (South Asia head), Mr V Thyagarajan will take over as vice-chairman of Glaxo India effective September 25, 2000. Thyagarajan comes back at the helm of Glaxo India at a time when Glaxo is in the midst of a global merger with British multinational SmithKline Beecham. Earlier, Glaxo and Burroughs Wellcome (India) MD, Mr HR Khusrokhan had decided to call it a day by the end of 2000. Mr Khusrokhan's decision follows mutual consent with the British parent company on the issue.