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Research and development work for pharmaceuticals urged

Staff Reporter
Mollick Mahmood, Pharmacist Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) is a multidisciplinary national scientific research establishment. This organization was established in 1955 with an objective to do comprehensive research for scientific and industrial development of the country. During the journey of this research institute, it has many vital contributions to the nation by developing many new products and processes through it devoted research involvement in various fields. It has been continuously playing very important role in the field of scientific and industrial development of the country. Scientists of BCSIR are engaged in research & development activities with the aim and objective to develop technology and to achieve self-reliance in industrial development. In addition to R&D activities, BCSIR also provides analytical and other services to any people and organization. Current areas & major fields of research and development activities of BCSIR are: 1. Glass & Ceramics 2. Pulp & Paper 3. Biotechnology 4. Production of various chemical from organic sources 5. Production of durable & low cost housing materials 6. Analytical Research 7. Industrial Physics 8. Production of Instrument useable in Laboratories 9. Biological Sciences 10. Leather Research and Development 11. Fiber & Polymer 12. Food Science & Nutrition 13. Food Microbiology 14. Animal Food Technology 15. Oilseeds & Legumes Technology 16. Plant Food Technology 17. Food Science & Quality Control 18. Conservation of Energy and Exploration of the New Energy Sources 19. Improved Oven Technology 20. Biogas Technology 21. Chemistry 22. Plant Science 23. Pharmacology 24. Khair 25. Lac 26. Processing of fruits 27. Fats and Waxes 28. Fiber 29. Oil and Oilseeds 30. Pilot Plant and Techno-economic Study 31. Environmental Pollution 32. Tissue Culture 33. Solar Oven 34. Aromatic Plants 35. Medicinal Plants 36. Human Nutrition 37. Effect of processing on the nutrient content of foods 38. Poultry feeds Research Achievement Number of research papers published ----------------------------- 2500 Number of industrial/commercial problems solved ------------- 7500 Number of industrial process developed --------------------------- 516 Number of patents gained -------------------------------------------- 204 Number of process leased out --------------------------------------- 198 Number of industries under full production using process Developed in the Council --------------------------------------------- 35 Number of new industries setup based on the process Developed in the Council -----------------------------------------------15 Number of entrepreneurs taking lease of the process Developed in the Council -----------------------------------------------101 BCSIR is not doing RnD work directly on pharmaceutical field now. Out of 38 fields of research Medicinal plants, Human nutrition and Biotechnology are the allied areas of pharmaceutical RnD. It has developed physical lab for API research and bioassay lab for cancer, ant-diabetic activities screening of some new compounds. We have taken initiative to open a pharmaceutical Research Division in BCSIR recently. This RnD division will mainly work in API synthesis, dosage form design and analytical services to pharma companies. All pharma companies specially the leaders should come forward to spend more in RnD activities in formulation designing, API synthesis and new molecules search. There can be an excellent collaboration between the scientists from BCSIR, universities and industry. Scientists from BCSIR can conduct research with financial and technical support from the pharmaceutical sector. Possible contribution to pharma industry: i. Joint venture R & D projects between BCSIR and pharmaceutical companies will help to gather technical know-how to reduce dependency on imported raw materials, to improve quality of medicines etc. ii. Opportunities of bioequivalence study and clinical trials may be created. Currently, bioequivalency tests are conducted in foreign countries resulting in huge expenditure of pharmaceutical industries. iii. To evaluate the biological activity of medicines by carrying out pharmacological, toxicological and animal dose response experiment, clinical trials and their quality assurance. iv. To carry out chemical investigation on the interesting resources for the isolation, purification and identification of bioactive principles (lead compounds for drug development) using modern techniques. v. Development and production of improved medicines with emphasis on proper quality control. vi. Determination of effective dose of medicine by pharmacological or clinical tests and observation of their biological value. vii. Designing of dosage forms for commercial utilization to small and medium pharma companies who don't have adequate RnD facilities. viii. Development of medicines from the natural resources of our country for remedies of the mostly prevalent diseases like diabetes, cancers, chronic dysentery, chronic ulcer etc. Local pharma companies have emerged as the major players in the industry occupying substantial share of the total market. Some companies are also exporting medicines at an increasing volume. WTO rule creates the opportunity to enhance and expedite medicine export for Bangladesh. In the mean time many leading pharma companies have already achieved international approval like UK-MHRA, TGA, GCC and EU-GMP facility approval. Our pharma products (medicines) are very high standard of quality which are comparable to international standard. The pharma industry in Bangladesh does not have the adequate research infrastructure and capacity to discover new molecular entities and API synthesis through reverse engineering process as patented molecules. In order to avail vast opportunity, all the identified problems need immediate solution. Developing the R & D units, including AP