Haffkine Institute to get Rs 100 crore for facelift

The building from which Haffkine Institute operates now. Express Photo by Ruhi Bhasin

The state government has decided to provide Rs 100 crore for the upgradation of the Haffkine Institute for Training, Research and Testing. At a meeting held in Mumbai on Friday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also approved a state-of-the-art building for Haffkine’s research and analysis wing.“The state government has taken a decision to provide Rs 100 crore to Haffkine Institute. The government is
committed to provide all necessary financial, logistic and administrative support to the institute,” Fadnavis said.

“To ensure that world class medicine and drugs are produced through thorough research, we have to provide all necessary logistics and financial support to the institute. At the same time, Haffkine Institute should get special status for which Centre’s help would also be taken,” he added.

Cabinet minister Girish Bapat, Haffkine Institute’s consultant committee president Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, committee member Dr Anand Bang, medical education and medicine and drug department secretary Sanjay Deshmukh, Haffkine corporation’s director Sampada Mehta and others were present at the meeting.

Haffkine Institute for Training, Research and Testing in Mumbai’s Parel, primarily works on life saving drugs. It was
established on January 10, 1899.
The institute is affiliated to the University of Mumbai for MSc (Microbiology, Applied Biology and Organic Chemistry), PhD (Microbiology) and MD (PSM) degree programmes.