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Telangana Minister for IT and Urban Development, KT Rama Rao, has set an ambitious target of doubling the State’s life sciences industry to $100 billion in the next decade. The objective is also to create 4 lakh jobs.
Inaugurating the 15th annual BioAsia event at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre, he said the present size of the industry is $50 billion with over 800 companies. “We aim to create assets in the sector which are worth at least ₹3,000 crore in the next 2-3 years,” he added.
Rama Rao unveiled plans to set up an incubator focussed on vaccine development, infrastructure fund, expansion of the Genome Valley, etc, to spur growth in the sector. Hyderabad has strong pharma, biotech, agri and healthcare sectors with a host of national labs and universities to support the plans, if synergised well.
Three-day event
The three-day event has attracted participation of 1,500 delegates from healthcare, biotech, pharma, life-sciences, IT, academia and start-up companies from across 55 countries with 100 high-profile speakers and 500 corporates. At the inaugural function, the Minister also presented the Genome Valley Excellence Award to Michael N Hall from Biozentrum University of Basel, Switzerland, for his pioneering work in discovering the nutrient-activated Target of Rapamycin (ToR) protein and its central role in the metabolic control of cell growth.
Vaccine hub
Rama Rao said Telangana contributes more than 35 per cent to the national pharmaceutical production in the country. It also produces nearly 33 per cent of the global vaccine dosages and can rightly claim to be the ‘Vaccine Hub’ of India and the world, he said.
An MoU was signed between Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC) and Central Spectrum, Malaysia, for mutual promotion of Telangana and Selangor Bio Bay, and facilitation of research in the fields of life sciences, biotechnology, healthcare and medical devices. Ireland, the Netherlands and South Africa are the international partners of BioAsia while Gujarat, Assam and Rajasthan are the Indian States partnering the event.
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