The private players in the biotech sector can look forward to a windfall in the form of financial support from the Centre in the next few years with the Department of Biotechnology planning to set apart 30 per cent of its total budget for public-private partnership programmes.
The DBT is looking for funds to the tune of Rs 6500 crore during the XIth Five Year Plan and about Rs 2000 crore would be earmarked for the PPP ventures, sources said. The DBT has already tied up with FICCI to float industry platforms, an important element of the national biotechnology development strategy.
"The move to allot more funds to the private sector is meant to promote innovation, pre-proof-of-concept research, accelerated product development in biotechnologies related to areas including health,'' an official from the DBT explained.
Besides this, the existing Small Business Innovation Research Industry (SBIRI) scheme would be expanded further during the XIth Plan. The SBIRI scheme has been a success in promoting innovation in the SME sector and there has been a demand from the industry to expand the same.
In another initiative to help the private sector, the DBT would also launch Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme (BIPP) for achieving global competitiveness and generating intellectual property in frontier biotechnologies. A novel feature of this cost-sharing scheme will be to allow the industry partner to retain intellectual property, with a payment of appropriate royalty to the contributing public sector scientists. This scheme would be particularly directed towards finding solutions to difficult-to-fulfil and unmet national needs through advanced technologies. Unlike the SBIRI, large industry partners could be engaged under this scheme, sources said.
Industry platforms will enable the public-private collaborations through the formation of strategic alliances between the research community, industry and policy makers for exploitation and dissemination of research results, a means of voicing opinion on research policies, providing inputs in identifying and overcoming unnecessary regulatory and administrative barriers in commercialising the results of research and in shaping the future education and training needs.
The DBT receives funding from sources like CSIR, DST, ICAR, ICMR, MHRD and others. DBT got Rs 1450 crore for the 10th Plan and Rs 621 crore during the IXth Plan. With the sector growing rapidly, the DBT has sought Rs. 6500 crore as fund support this time.