The Hindu Business Line : Biotech sector wants cohesive policy

THE national biotechnology policy draft should ensure that States promoting biotechnology do so in a cohesive and co-ordinated manner for the healthy growth of the industry in the country, speakers at a roundtable on the draft have suggested.

The roundtable, part of the three-day Bangalore Bio 2005 that opened here on Friday, had participants from stake-holding sectors - industry, academia, research institutions - apart from the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ms Vasundhara Raje.

The session raised issues such as biotech education and human resource, proliferation of biotech parks, fiscal incentives for biotech companies, regulatory matters and ethics in clinical trials and commercialisation of GM crops that the policy should address.

The Karnataka IT and Biotechnology Secretary, Mr M.K. Shankaralinge Gowda, said the overarching national policy should allow interested States to have their own roadmap; States should tap their own strength rather than merely replicate another State's strategy.

According to Mr Gowda, there is an urgent need to standardise biotechnology education across the country to meet industry needs. This will check the mushrooming of institutions that offered sub-standard biotech courses.

Karnataka, the first State to adopt a biotech policy, has a model for private-public partnership as well as the two-year-old higher learning institution IBAB.

The Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Mr M.K. Bhan, said there is need for a national steering committee on life sciences, with members drawn from States, for greater co-ordination on policies and educational priorities. "We are celebrating our individuality at the moment" and the time has come for biotechnology-aspirant States to move forward in unison, he said.

At a time when India is becoming a destination for clinical research activities, the clinical trial protocol should be streamlined, said Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, head of the Karnataka biotechnology think-tank and CMD of Biocon Ltd. At the same time, Indian companies, which are being sought out for partnerships with foreign biotech and pharma majors, should emphasise their capability to deliver speedily rather than talk of cost advantage.

Ms Mazumdar-Shaw said the industry also had problems related to import and free exchange of biomaterials. Biotech companies are making huge capital investments in infrastructure and should be given relief against expenses such as captive power plants and effluent treatment plants.

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