Financial Times

Investing in research and development

According to our lead story on the previous page Sri Lankan companies some years ago would have rejected or thrown out any suggestion to invest in research and development (R&D), or have a fully fledged lab.

R&D is an expensive process and most companies would have needed to justify the cost of research and what the payback time would be. Take the pharmaceutical industry for example, the costliest research is handled by western drug firms who pass on these costs to consumers – that’s why drugs are very expensive.

That has changed to some extent with the multinationals moving research and production facilities to Asia and South Asia leading to a sharp lowering of costs. Take for example the anti-retroviral drugs for the long-term management of AIDS. The costs were so exorbitant that patients died because they couldn’t afford the medicine. Then came the powerful campaign in Africa against costly drugs including court action resulting in a sharp fall in prices of AIDS drugs and the government providing drugs to patients.

Anti-retroviral drugs are costing much less now. The point here is that the bulk of the cost of a product particularly when it comes to what we consume goes into research and that is then passed onto the consumer. Research costs money for many reasons. You can succeed or fail. No one wants the second option and that’s where the problem lies when it comes to investing in research in small countries like Sri Lanka.

The times are changing however. To begin with Sri Lankan companies have been hiring the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) to develop new products after research. Some products in the market like a popular brand of snacks, says on the label that the product has been developed by ITI.

That process has developed further and now we find companies starting their own research facilities like CIC, Hemas and recently Richard Peiris. These companies are also hiring the best scientists and researchers – unheard of many years ago – and are on the lookout for more specialists.

While salaries may not be comparable with the wages that scientists and researchers would get overseas, the package has been made attractive enough for these companies to draw some well experienced people.
Our story quotes Dr. Ishan Dias, a Cambridge graduate who has worked abroad and is now R & D manager at CIC as saying that if we provide good wages Sri Lankan scientists will not leave the country for better jobs elsewhere.

Another researcher Dharshan de Silva, who was looking for an opportunity in Colombo after having worked and lived in the US for 16 years, also believes the brain drain can be reversed if a decent package is offered. De Silva who has a PhD in Immunology, does research in TB, molecular biology and protein chemistry, and currently works for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, reckons a package of a minimum Rs 100,000 plus car and fuel (which is the average package for a top marketer whose salaries are in the Rs 100,000 and above range) would attract many Sri Lankans back to their homeland.

One hopes that the new drive towards R & D by some companies in the private sector would be followed by others. Success is there as exemplified by product development and fame in the creation of Kumarika hair oil which is a top selling product and other examples like Siddhalepa or Samahan to name a few.

Perhaps the government should – with cajoling from the private sector – offer incentives to companies to set up research facilities and hire Sri Lankan scientists. It would help get the message out that there is scope for scientists in the private sector in an area that was hitherto confined to the state sector.

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