The Hindu Business Line : CSIR chief for a public portal on drug research

Bangalore, Dec. 23 The new chief of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research has proposed a Web-based public documenting of certain public and private drug research activities so as to bring out affordable medicine for neglected diseases.

Dr Samir K. Brahmachari, CSIR’s Director-General, also said the council may allow its scientists to do short stints in the biotech industry and to own and license their intellectual property in the area.

A common portal in public domain that provides the details and status of public and private agencies’ research in diseases like tuberculosis, he said, would be useful in finding low-cost drugs for such rampant third-world diseases. IITs and other agencies could be part of such an initiative, Dr Brahmachari said at the fifth annual biotechnology awards function organised by Biospectrum magazine here on Friday.

Biotech policy

Industry leaders welcomed the recently announced National Biotechnology Policy. Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD, Biocon Ltd, said the proposed biotechnology regulatory authority should be set up early. Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, Chairman of Serum Institute, Pune, said it should be a single window agency to avoid delays and enable products to hit the market early. Dr K.K. Narayanan, President of the Association of Biotech-Led Enterprises (ABLE), was concerned about its timely implementation.

Dr S. Natesh, Adviser, Department of Biotechnology, favoured the setting up of a committee jointly with the industry to directly disburse the allotted research funds.

Lifetime award

Dr Pushpa Mittra Bhargava, former Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, got this year’s lifetime achievement award. Dr Vijay Chandru of Strand Life Sciences is the Entrepreneur of the Year.

Biocon’s anti-cancer drug BIOMAb EGFR was awarded the Product of the Year and Mr Varaprasad Reddy, MD of vaccines major Shantha Biotechnics Ltd, the person of the year.

Gujarat is the State of the Year.

RS 8,541-CR INDUSTRY

The top three biotech company slots by turnover continue to be with Serum Institute (Rs 951 crore); Biocon Ltd (Rs 823 crore) and Panacea Biotec, Delhi (Rs 600 crore).

During the year the biotech industry touched Rs 8,541 crore in revenue. Exports grew 47 per cent in 2006-07 to Rs 4,937 crore, Mr N. Suresh, Editor of CyberMedia’s specialty magazine, who announced the fifth annual biotech awards, citing their annual survey, said.

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