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MINSK, 6 August (BelTA) – The Indian pharmaceutical company Cipla Limited will invest $1 million in the construction of an R&D center for making medications at premises of the Academpharm enterprise of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. The news was released by Yusuf Khwaja Hamied, Non-Executive Chairman of the Indian company Cipla Limited, before the landscape complex in honor of the center’s construction was unveiled on 6 August, BelTA has learned.

Yusuf Khwaja Hamied said: “We’ve promised to invest $1 million. Once the sum is spent, we will discuss further steps. We would like to help open a new research and development division for Belarus’ benefit. I recommend doing research work by combining old and new products. It will help develop healthcare.”

Yusuf Khwaja Hamied specified that the center is supposed to open in spring 2020. The center will use Indian raw materials and technologies.

Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vladimir Gusakov noted that a number of technologies will be mastered to establish the center such as micronization, dry granulation, multilayered pills, and so on. The R&D center is expected to manufacture medications using a complete cycle – from a scientific idea to manufacturing. Vladimir Gusakov said: “The choice of our enterprise as a platform for creating the R&D center is a token of trust in the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, its scientists and specialists. We will try to live up to that trust. We will have to pour a lot of effort into the successful implementation of the project but I am convinced that the combined capabilities of both sides will secure the desired result,” he said.

The Cipla Limited delegation will stay in Belarus on 5-8 August. The purpose of the visit is to discuss promising ways of expanding cooperation between the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and Indian organizations, present promising cooperation avenues, and discuss the concept of the pharmaceutical R&D center.

Yusuf Khwaja Hamied is a leading Indian scientist. He is known internationally primarily for his desire to provide medications to fight AIDS and other grave diseases to patients in the world’s poorest countries. He was unanimously elected honorary member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus on 16 November 2017.

Founded in 1935, Cipla Limited is focused on development, chemical synthesis, and production of over 1,500 ready-made medications. It offers antitumor medications, bronchodilators, corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, chemotherapeutic and antiretroviral agents, antibiotics, and antidepressants. Cipla Limited is present in 150 countries across the globe.