CSIR-NCL and CPI (UK) Start a ‘Living Lab’ to Bolster UK-India Effort to Decarbonise the Chemical Industry

Pune, 17th October 2024: A new initiative to decarbonise the Indian pharmaceutical industry could reduce emissions by up to 80% by adopting innovative manufacturing approaches.

Part of the UK-India Net Zero Innovation Centre, this ‘Living Lab’ will act as a testbed for companies to explore and de-risk advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing technologies that could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Indian pharma industry owns over 20% of the global pharma supply chain and contributes to approximately 60% of the worldwide demand for vaccines. It also provides 40% of the generic drug demand in the US and supplies 25% of all medicines in the UK.

Established by the CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), a premier R&D institute in India, and Centre for Process Innovations (CPI), one of the UK’s leading technology innovation centres, the state-of-the-art ‘Living Lab’ facility at CSIR-NCL in Pune will initially develop and demonstrate the potential of continuous manufacturing and solvent-free manufacturing methods. The ‘Living Lab’ is a part of the Centre for Sustainable Continuous Manufacturing hosted by CSIR-NCL. The Centre has three levels of industry engagements.

Recently, the ‘Living Lab’, which is a part of the Centre for Sustainable Continuous Manufacturing has welcomed its first set of pharmaceutical companies in India to sign up for the partnership. Aarti Industries, Glenmark Life Sciences, USV, Anthem Biosciences, Corning and GMM-Pfaudler will work together with CPI and CSIR-NCL to create world-leading manufacturing practices. Three more large companies, including Sun Pharma, are in the process of joining this partnership imminently. Having these industries as partners in the development of an eco-system for pre-competitive research on decarbonization using continuous flow synthesis, which is the strength of CSIR-NCL with digitalization support from the CPI will make this Centre quite resourceful and unique.

Dr Ashish Lele, Director of CSIR-NCL, said: “The Indian pharmaceutical and fine and specialty chemicals industries have a strong culture of innovation and a drive to decarbonize. Continuous flow manufacturing coupled with digitalization is an emerging powerful technology platform that can enable higher productivity, improved safety and reduced emissions of drug manufacturing processes.

“The ‘Living Lab’ will be a unique testbed that will allow the Indian chemical and pharmaceutical industries to validate the advantages of emerging technologies and help them to transition from conventional batch manufacturing to continuous manufacturing, thereby contributing to a significant reduction in emissions. The involvement of the technology partners, who own niche technologies relevant to continuous manufacturing, will strengthen the Centre and expedite the translation towards commercialization.”

Dr Arun Harish, Chief Strategy Officer at CPI, said: “At a time when global demand for treatments and vaccines has never been higher, the pharma industry must also act if it is going to achieve net zero.

“India makes such a huge contribution to the global pharmaceutical industry and plays a key role in manufacturing the treatments and vaccines that keep us healthy.

“The potential for this project and the impact it could have on the world’s drive towards industrial decarbonisation is huge. By establishing the ‘Living Lab’, we have developed a new engagement model with industry to allow them to collaborate, test and develop business cases for new technology and innovation adoption at scale.”

Mirik Gogri, Head, Corporate Strategy at Aarti Industries, said: “Aarti Industries firmly believes that the biggest lever for decarbonization of the fine chemical industry is the development and commercialization of less energy-intensive processes. “We are looking at the ‘Living Lab’ as an institution that will develop such processes in challenging chemistries and democratize access to the broader Indian industry. We are looking forward to working closely with the partnership and stewarding it.”

Dr Chetan Doshi, Chief Scientific Officer at USV, said: “NCL, A CSIR laboratory, has undertaken an ambitious goal to support the Indian chemical industry in reducing its carbon footprint through the development of platform technologies and in-depth understanding of factors affecting continuous manufacturing for some of the most common chemical reactions of hazardous nature. “In the first technical advisory meeting, I was pleased to see active participation from industry members and arriving at a consensus to steer this complex and ambitious project in the direction that will enable us to develop platform technologies for sustainable continuous manufacturing and allow the Indian chemical Industry to participate in global markets ensuring Scope 3 compliance as per European regulations.”

Jack Landers, Head of Net Zero Innovation Centre, British High Commission, New Delhi, said: “The UK-India ‘living lab’ in Pune is a wonderful initiative that provides us with an interactive testbed environment, enabling companies to trial and de-risk advanced manufacturing technologies to support the net zero targets of both industries.”

Very soon CSIR-NCL will announce an Industry Consortium on Continuous Manufacturing that aims to involve mid-size Indian fine and specialty chemicals industries and also the pharmaceutical intermediate and medicinal compound manufacturers, who will have access to a wide range of flow synthesis facilities at CSIR-NCL. This industry consortium will also be one of the activities of this Centre.