The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), a premier industrial R &D organization in India was constituted in 1942 by a resolution of the then Central Legislative Assembly. It is an autonomous body registered under the Registration of Societies Act of 1860. CSIR aims to provide industrial competitiveness, social welfare, a strong science and technology base for strategic sectors and advancement of fundamental knowledge. Today CSIR is recognized as one of the world’s largest publicly funded R&D organizations having linkages to academia, R&D organizations and industry. CSIR’s 37 laboratories not only knit India into a giant network that impacts and adds quality to the life of each and every Indian, but is also party to the prestigious Global Research Alliance that seeks to apply global knowledge pool for global good through global funding. CSIR’s R&D portfolio embraces areas as diverse as aerospace, biotechnology, chemicals etc. covering the entire spectrum of scientific activity in Indian science.

Health care, drugs and pharmaceuticals is a prominent sector under CSIR’s mandate. CSIR has geared itself to face the challenges in this sector through measures to prioritize research programmes, creation of state-of-the-art facilities, induction of new talent and networking research within CSIR with other national agencies/industry to capitalize on their combined strength.

CSIR projects in this sector focus on new drugs based on our traditional knowledge, biodiversity, marine resources, new molecular targets for selected pathogens, in silico biology, predictive medicine, new animal models and animal substitute technologies.

Recent advances in biology such as genome sequencing have opened up unlimited opportunities in medicine. Technologies of combinatorial synthesis and high-throughput screening offer the potential to speed up drug discovery. CSIR has made valuable contributions to the industry and society by the development of several novel drugs.

Products developed under CSIR’s composite mandate in the sector of health care, drugs and pharmaceuticals include herbal medicines, nutraceuticals, new drugs, diagnostics, vaccines, inventions, devices and gadgets for monitoring air, water, food contaminants/adulterants all of which comply with international regulatory requirements, quality and standards. Some of the CSIR laboratories at the forefront of herbal drug-related research are listed below (Figure 5.3).