Lab Chemicals -Shrinking R&D spend

The declining budget allocation for research and development (R&D) activities due to global economic slump as well as the exorbitant rise in the lab instrument costs have impacted the fortunes of the lab chemicals and equipment sectors.

Specifically for India, the budget allocation for R&D from the Union government has fallen from 15 per cent in 2009 to five per cent in 2013-14. The scientific community now foresees a further dip in the R&D allocation.

There is a serious erosion of confidence among the scientific community as they fear that the abysmal fund crunch would badly hit innovation. The government should understand that research will not yield immediate results and unless there is continuous funding, prospects of innovation is bleak, they point out.

The steep hike in the cost of lab instruments even within weeks is also posing a serious problem. For example Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) instrument costing Rcostings. 35 lakh in mid-2013 has soared to Rs. 46 lakh at present, point a section of scientists.

All is not well from the lab chemical industry and instrumentation supplier perspective also.

The year 2013 was better off, compared to 2012 as many of the Contract Research Organizations (CROs), contract research manufacturing services (CRAMS), or stand alone contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) and pharma companies performed better. The year 2013 also witnessed the consolidation of the lab chemicals sector with changes at management levels.

Though the market growth is close to double digit, majority of the lab chemical companies depend on pharma or related industries for business development. In 2014, we expect Indian lab chemical manufacturers to move on to production of pharmacopeial grade chemicals like USP- NF, PhEur and BP. There is some optimism that in 2014 , after country’s general elections, there could be an increase in the fund allocation for research.

Lab chemicals - Pharma use

For good quality research and development work in pharmaceutical or any other industries, one needs a good laboratory and for which one needs good quality laboratory chemicals. It is presumed that commercially available laboratory chemicals are in general of good quality, as supplied, for most purposes in scientific and technological work.

 However, it is also true that for many applications further purification of laboratory chemicals is essential. In such purification processes it may be necessary to eliminate trace impurities at the micro and nano-gram levels. For this, ultra-purification techniques are available. Increasingly stringent requirements for reagent purity have gone hand-in-hand with developments in semiconductor technology, in the preparation of special alloys and in the isolation of highly biologically active substances. The need to eliminate trace impurities at the micro and nanogram levels has placed greater emphasis on ultra-purification technique.

The selection technique for ultra-purification of individual chemicals is based on the answers of two questions; purification from what, and to what permissible level of contamination. Where these questions can be specifically answered, suitable methods of purification can usually be devised.

Laboratory chemicals are available in different grades which are based on the impurity content and applications. Various purification processes are available to purify laboratory chemicals to the desired specifications of each grade. One important point is to be noted here that to purify chemicals to meet the specifications of a desired grade of laboratory chemicals, one must start with a material of the best grade commercially available.

The final assessment of the purity of a laboratory chemical is made on the basis of its physical constants in comparison with those cited in the literature. In the case of a new compound the purity should be assessed and the structural identity established by appropriate chromatographic and spectroscopic methods.