ICMR-NARFBR will be a world-class research institution, says Kishan

Hyderabad: Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy has said that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research (NARFBR) will play a key role in human and animal health research, beneficial not only to the country, but also to the world. After visiting the facility here on Tuesday, to take stock of the progress of work, he told the media that it was spread over 100 acres with a built-up area of four lakh square feet, and a three megawatt solar power back-up. It has state of the art facilities and is shaping up to meet the future health needs of the country, as well as the world.

Reddy said NARFBR will act as a mother institution to carry out research activities from small to big animals, like rats to horses, in the biomedical field to develop drugs, vaccines, medical devices and food products. With facilities of world standards, it will function as a catalyst providing facilities to conduct research in biomedical, biotechnology and biopharmaceuticals.

It will collaborate with colleges, universities, medical institutions, biotech, and bio-pharma companies, providing testing lab and technical resources, for research, testing and approval for drugs, vaccines and other medical solutions.

He said the institution got Cabinet approval in 2015; it is the foresight of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's to set up the institute in Hyderabad, to achieve self-reliance in medical research, to find solutions to changing face of disease profiles and emergence of new ones.

That apart, the minister stated that pharmaceutical companies across the country have to go abroad for testing of their findings, incurring huge foreign exchange.

The NARFBR would extend facilities to both small and big pharma companies to carry out testing, thus, reducing the burden of incurring huge amounts and saving foreign exchange.

Reddy said the country has to achieve progress by channelising energies of young population in the golden period of the next 25 years in achieving self-reliance in research. Institutions like NARFBR would help young students and researchers to be part of India's vision of achieving overall progress.

About 60 per cent of the institution staff has been working. Once fully functional, it is going to shape into one of the top biomedical research institutions and a research destination in the world.

He said under Modi's visionary leadership more institutions are to come to Telangana; establishing a science city is one among them. He and his ministry officials had written letters to the State government for allocation of land to it.