The Hindu Business Line : Biotech may see boom time; turning into a Rs 11,000-cr segment

Fair period: Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (right), Chairperson, Biocon, and Mr Sidney Allman, Nobel Laureate, Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, Yale University, US, at the inauguration of Bangalore Bio-2008 on Thursday. —

Our Bureau

Bangalore, April 24 The time, the fund, the trend, linkages and policy support for the domestic biotechnology industry — all seems to be falling in place as it matures into a Rs 11,000-crore segment.

Dr M.K. Bhan, Secretary of the Department Biotechnology, said he saw a second biotech wave as new investments poured in. Project funds alone of $100 million flowed in from overseas in one year.

Regulator plan

The department has submitted the biotech regulator plan to the Union Cabinet and is crafting a mega scheme to bring expat scientists and technocrats back.

“We hope to see 2,000-3,000 scientists who went abroad come back to India in the next seven to eight years,” Dr Bhan told presspersons later at the eighth annual Bangalore Bio event on Thursday.

Dr Bhan said, “We have taken the help of Welcome Trust to launch a mega programme to attract Indian scientists and technocrats working abroad back to India. This is a very attractive re-entry package for young Indians. There are a series of initiatives that should mature over a couple of years.”

Biotechnology itself has got a Rs 6,500-crore outlay for the 11th Plan.

The biotech policy focussed on creating human resources and this was backed by the big budgetary allocation for higher education.

The overseas funds were coming not just from old sources the US and the UK; they came in from new geographies Australia and New Zealand, Denmark, Holland and Sweden.

The long-awaited biotechnology regulatory authority on the USFDA lines should be in place in two years’ time.

This would be a professional body with solid training and members drawn from the industry, Dr Bhan said.

Research institutions

About a dozen research institutions were coming up across the country over the next two to three years.

In all these moves, Dr Bhan said, “We are looking at the long term, for the next couple of decades.”

Ms Kiran MAzumdar Shaw, Biocon Chief Managing Director and Chairperson of the Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology, said, “We are all seeking partnerships in a variety of ways — between countries, companies, labs and academia. The need is to provide affordable and accessible food and medicine and partnering makes it possible.” India, she said, offered the lowest production cost of generic drugs, vaccines and now, biosimilars.

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