National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) is going to be created under the aegis of Ministry of Chemicals & Fertiliser at Kolkata as a centre of excellence for higher education, research and development in pharmaceutical sciences. The institute has been declared as an Institute of National importance by Government of  India through Act of Parliament ( NIPER Act 1998 & NIPER amendment Act 2007).

For the time being, the new Institute will be housed at Indian Institute of Chemical Biology – a premier Institute of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, India. The Institute was established in 1935 as the first non-official centre in India for biomedical research and was included within the aegis of CSIR in 1956. IICB today is engaged in research on diseases of national importance and biological problems of global interest, employing sophisticated state-of-the-art technology in keeping with the rapid and unprecedented momentum that life science research has gained globally over the last 50 years. The scientific staff has expertise in a variety of areas including chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, biotechnology, neurobiology, immunology, structural biology and bioinformatics, which promotes productive interdisciplinary interactions. of the major laboratories in India which initiated, right from its inception, multidisciplinary concerted efforts for conducting basic research on infectious diseases, specifically leishmaniasis and cholera, along with the development of technologies for the diagnosis, immunoprophylaxis, and chemotherapy of the diseases. A neurobiology group is involved in research on the development of the vertebrate brain and also the genesis of human movement disorders. Bioactive substances from natural sources and chemically synthesized new molecules are being explored as potential drugs. Other areas being actively pursued are gastric hyperacidity and ulcer, muscular dystrophy and related disorders, macromolecular structure-function analysis, development of targeted drug delivery systems, sperm biology and protein chemistry and enzymology

SALT LAKE CAMPUS: A Proteomic Research Centre is  being set up at Salt Lake campus with the objective of creating an integrated state-of-the-art infrastructure for advanced research on protein and proteomics. This national facility has been sanctioned as a joint venture between CSIR and the PRDSF program of DST and will encompass the areas of Clinical proteomics, Structural proteomics, Functional proteomics, Protein engineering ,Bioinformatics Core research activities at the Center will be focused on Development of biomarkers as diagnostic and monitoring tools. Identification of drug targets Engineering therapeutic proteins New drug development Bioinformatic tools. Services will be provided to research laboratories, universities, pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries, etc.

During the session 2007-2008, the Institute will admit students for the M.S. (Pharm.) in Medicinal Chemistry, Natural Products and Pharmacoinformatics programmes.

Objectives
The main objectives of NIPER, Kolkata are:

• To tone up the level of pharmaceutical education and research.
• To produce leaders in the field and provide opportunities for training of future teachers and research scientists for the industry and the profession.
• To be a center for innovation in pharmaceutical sciences and technology.
• To encourage research and studies in new and emerging areas like discovery of pharmacologically active molecules, cellular and molecular biology, immunology and immunodiagnostics, recombinant DNA technology and monoclonal antibody technology, novel drug delivery systems, chemical and biochemical process technology etc.
• To provide scientific footing to traditional medicines.