It is a welcome development that global pharma major Pfizer has set up a drug research and development centre, which is the 12th addition to its global network of research facilities and in Asia, at IIT Madras Research, India’s first university-based research park. is the first. The park, which also houses the institute’s incubation center for ventures undertaken by students, alumni and faculty.
The center will work on Active Pharma Ingredients (APIs) and compound formulations and delivery mechanisms. It will work on research to identify potentially useful molecules, and develop the molecule into usable drugs, whose safety and dosage are established through trials. This will include managers of research and development, as well as a variety of scientific and technical personnel.
The center is bound to generate many benefits. One is pulling a larger and deeper pool of talent towards an advanced degree in science. Second, it will introduce the latest research methods and techniques for managing research in pharmaceuticals in India. Third, it will show the usefulness of industry-academic relations. And, four, this knowledge and capability will spread Pfizer at its center to the pool of Indian knowledge workers in pharma and bio-sciences, ultimately benefiting all mankind through the efforts of Indian industry and beyond.
The education system of India suffers from many defects. One is the utilitarian approach to study. Getting a good job is the primary motivation, and the jobs that have traditionally been given importance are civil servants, doctors, engineers, accountants and managers. This, of course, is gross simplification, but it would be absolutely wrong to assume that only a fraction of the genius in expanding the boundaries of knowledge in science actually filters through these disciplines.
When an advanced research center like Pfizer hires PhDs at a higher salary, it dispels the impression that for a bright young student, his passion for bridging the depth of a given subject is about its applied benefits. To leave without any thought. Fascinating careers and, moreover, being locked in the bureaucracy of India’s statistical research bodies or condemned to struggle in India’s less and less-equipped university departments, are for the most part the only two alternative futures for someone studying pure science. are open.
This will have far-reaching implications for knowledge creation in India. If Indian industry develops an ambition to harness India’s scientific talent with a vision of little more than the low-hanging fruits it has traditionally set, it will not be hindered by a shortage of qualified personnel.
Management of research and development is a special type of management that has not found much use in Indian industry, essentially because it does very little original research. This has to change. India has the largest demographic that is engaged in or willing to pursue higher education. If their mind and passion are not harnessed to do cutting edge research, it will be everyone’s loss. Centers like the new one by Pfizer in Chennai can avoid this.
Given its proximity to Stanford and the transactions between the university and Silicon Valley startups, the relationship between universities and new centers of innovation, creativity and world-beating business success couldn’t be more clear than in Silicon Valley. In India, the colonial legacy of having universities primarily as teaching organizations while research is carried out, if at all, in specialized government laboratories, has been changing for some time. But it’s still rare for this kind of research to fuel a new business off university campuses or feed into an industrial ecosystem. The IIT Madras Research Park was established to nurture the relationship between academia and industry. The presence of Pfizer on campus will further strengthen the connection.
Non-compete clauses and binding contracts of confidentiality protect intellectual property developed in industry-owned research centers. But that doesn’t stop those who do research moving jobs acquire a certain muscle memory and take their skills and aptitudes with them, even if they leave behind specific teachings.
William Shockley, one of the creators of the modern transistor at Bell Labs in New Jersey, founded the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, then called the Santa Clara Valley, to live with his ailing mother in Palo Alto. The world must thank the skills of their poor people and their inadequate recognition of the importance of talent management today for building generations of Silicon Valley successes. Eight key employees left Shockley Semiconductor to start Fairchild Semiconductor. Those who left Fairchild went on to establish Intel, AMD, and National Semiconductor.
We do not intend to link Pfizer’s India Development Center with a high level of manpower. The simple thing is that places like this give rise to new high-tech businesses, because people are people, and they have not only morals, but what Keynes called animal spirits that turn them into entrepreneurs. .
We wish the Pfizers India Center success and wish its potential alumni more success in their own ventures into India’s knowledge economy.