The Board of Sipra Labs, as part of its promotion of research activities, gave away ‘Sipra Innovative Pharma Research Award’ SIPRA-14 to young researchers working in the area of pharma sciences.
The award profile comprised gold, silver, bronze medals along with cash prize of Rs 50,000, Rs 30,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively. Selected papers of the symposium will be published as a special issue in The Austin Journal of Pharmacology & Therapeutics with International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) number.
Around 300 research papers were submitted by the students from various academic institutions. A total of 115 papers were shortlisted, based on the recommendation of the evaluators for making poster presentation at Sipra premises in Hyderabad.
Poster presentations were reviewed by top research academicians and senior research people from the industry. The first level of screening was done by a team of eight jury members and shortlisted 12 papers made detailed power point presentations to the jury. Five papers were selected for the awards.
JVG Pradeep of SriKrishnadevaraya University, Anantapur received the gold medal with a cash prize of Rs 50,000. Kishore Chittimalli, G Pulla Reddy College of Pharmacy, Hyderabad received silver medal with a cash prize of Rs 30,000. Three bronze medals with a cash prize of Rs 10,000 each were given to Tadiboyina Sirisha, JSS College of Pharmacy, JSS University, Mysore; Gudibandi Phani C Reddy, Mallareddy Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hakimpet, Secunderabad and S Shalini, Sri Shivani College of Pharmacy, Warangal.
The awards were given by the Chief Guest Dr PJ Sudhakar, Additional Director General, PIB, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
The chief guest Dr CH Mohan Rao, Director, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), addressed the participants and emphasised that research in life science is very much advanced.
The Guest of Honour Dr B Sesikeran, Former Director, National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and Chairman, Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM) addressed the participants and said, “Biotechnology and pharmacy have become synonyms and therefore the pharmacist must understand the advances in biotechnology vis-à-vis biotechnologist must understand how they can translate the finding in clinical use.”
Dr Venkata Reddy, Ex Director Drugs Controller, AP stressed on the importance of research in academic institutions. There is a lack of facilities and initiatives in academic institutions. Hence he suggested public, private partnerships for promoting pharma sector research. He applauded the effort of Sipra in initiating private, public co-operation in the field of research.
EP News Bureau – Mumbai