Drug Discovery Hackathon jointly launched by Union Ministers Dr Harsh Vardhan and Ramesh Pokhriyal

Human Resources and Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan yesterday jointly launched the Drug Discovery Hackathon 2020. It is an online competition and anybody from anywhere in the country or world can participate.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Pokhriyal said, Drug Discovery Hackathon is first of its kind national initiative for supporting drug discovery process. He said, to attract international talent, the hackathon will be open to participation from across the globe from professionals, faculty, researchers and



students.

 

Addressing the participants, Dr Harsh Vardhan emphasized the need to establish the culture of computational drug discovery in the country. In this initiative, HRD Innovation cell and AICTE will focus on identifying potential drug molecules through the Hackathon while CSIR will take these identified molecules forward for synthesis and laboratory testing.

He said, the objective of this Hackathon is to identify drug candidates against SARS-CoV-2 by in-silico drug discovery through the hackathon and follow up by chemical synthesis and biological testing.