Industry-Academia Collaboration

With the increasing rate of inflation (near to 12% which is the highest in last 13 years), increasing input cost for production, high government regulations, fierce competition and increasing cost of R&D (now more than USD  1 Billion = Rs. 4,000 crore) pharmaceutical companies are in great pressure.

Pharmaceutical companies are now days’ finding new ways to cut down their cost of operations in which one of the major ideas is Company-College research collaboration. This concept is not new for rest of the world but it is new for Indian Pharmaceutical industry.

We have lot of examples to support this which includes, Ranbaxy have forged collaborative research arrangements with Indian institute of Chemical technology for new drug discovery research. Company also has collaboration with National Chemical Laboratory (NCL). NCL also have collaborative research with Cipla and Cadila.

Major advantage company get is they can reduce their R&D cost, research time as well as it also invites innovative ideas from academia.

But when IPR (intellectual property rights) or trades secrets come into picture companies feel itself uncomfortable to outsource R&D to academia or colleges. Question is - What happens if student or teacher or any researcher involved in the research leave the college and move to the rival company and leak the important information relate to the ongoing research.

But now time is changing, more and more companies are collaborating with the colleges for research. This not only provides benefit to the company but also provides good funds as well as expertise’s knowledge to the college from the company.