Indian biotech industry which is expected to touch the US$ 7 billion mark by end of fiscal 2015, is now charting an enabling path and creating an ecosystem that incubates and nurtures innovation.
With the patents of many biopharmaceuticals and innovative molecules are expiring in 2015 till 2018, the Union Government has exhorted the indigenous companies to grab the opportunity.
A Network of Technology Centres and promotion of start-ups by SIDBI with a fund assistance of Rs. 200 crore are some of the initiatives announced by the Union Government to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
“The importance of generating green and renewable energy is paramount and biotech has a very important role to play regarding the same, said Union minister for f Environment & Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar early this year.
The Minister of State for Power Coal and New & Renewable Energy had stressed the need to focus on adopting energy efficiency measures and developing preventive healthcare. Biotech & life sciences have a crucial role to play regarding the same, he had pointed out.
Though we are facing challenges regarding investor’s reluctance and regulatory policies, we are seeing positive growth, noted Prof. K. VijayRaghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology.
The industry needs to focus on innovation to accelerate growth, which is being well supported by the growing number of start-ups, said Kiran Mazumadar-Shaw, chairperson Vision Group on Karantaka and CMD Biocon.
The future growth areas for biotech are diagnostics, drug discovery and development, food security, renewable fuels, climate change that will drive use of green technologies. Therefore research and development spends are important for building engines of future.
“Biotech is both a technology for the present and future. Going by the focus areas of the future, this sector will help spur the growth of Indian economy”, she added.
The biotech industry should come up with a concerted action plan to utilise the available infrastructure and resources more efficiently and focus on nurturing innovation to take the industry to the next level of growth, said Prof. VijayRaghavan.
The combination of computer science and computational biology has led to an explosion of Big Data analysis which will give researchers a better comprehension on prevention of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in the younger population. There is also ample scope to assess pain management from studies in marine biology. Anti microbial resistance is proving to be a bane in the Indian healthcare space. India’s bio-pharma expertise could chip into developing new drugs to keep this condition at bay. There are success and opportunities in the Indian biotech space. But we do see paucity of infrastructure, capital and regulations impacting the growth prospects of this sector, said Prof. VijayRagavan.
There are opportunities in India and globally for life sciences start ups to succeed and create a niche in the market. There are geographical boundaries, people skills with the ability to read markets. The early stage entrepreneurs need to comprehend that failure in a business model is not the end of a career but a beginning for promising opportunities. Although there is the capability in India, its entrepreneurs underestimate the adoption of an eco-system. The attention is more on the creation of a security in a business environment. So India needs a risk taking environment with its entrepreneurs to identify and evaluating the uncertainties, said Dr. Bala S Manian, founder and director, ReaMatrix, a leading healthcare technology company based out of US and India.
What is observed is that India’s bio-pharma start-ups are seen to have considerable momentum in the early phases of product and technology development but there is limited progress on a larger scale. Indian life science entrepreneurs need to adopt the risk taking outlook, he said.
Despite the extensive financial assistance coming in from BIRAC(Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council), DBT (department of Biotechnology) among others that there is a means for an idea to be nurtured and see it till the end of commercialization. India is emerging as research hub for diagnostics that are qualified for use. But basic research is not getting the products into development primarily because economics and business strategy are missing, noted Dr. Manian.
Recently the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platform (C-CAMP), India’s premier technology and innovation hub and One Nucleus, the Cambridge (UK) based international life science and healthcare membership organisation have signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement, said Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed, Director and COO, C-CAMP.
Technology is going to play a key role in shaping our destiny. Biotechnology is thus going to be extensively used in agriculture and renewable energy segments. Both segments are going to hold the key in the future. Indian companies have been practising biotechnology for a number of years and several factors are now favouring an accelerated growth. This year, the event will be showcasing the strides taken by Indian companies in the biotechnology segment to the world. Also mature companies are slowly consolidating on the gains of their research over the years, said Dr P M Murali, President – Association of Biotechnology Led Entrepreneurs (ABLE).
Indian biotechnology is facing the challenges of capital shortage, lack of clarity on regulations and access to quality platform technologies, said Prof. VijayRaghavan adding that the BIRAC AcE Fund would to accelerate the growth of entrepreneurs and drive innovation.
The rapidly evolving biotech industry in India is now eyeing not just the global markets but making efforts to tap the domestic opportunities. There have already been a slew of collaborations and joint ventures in research and development at Biocon and Polyclone Bioservices.
The Indian biotechnology sector is at a cusp. For future growth to occur based on innovation, massive injection to R&D needs to happen. Vaccines, biosimilars, biologicals which covers mAbs(monoclonal antibodies) and stem cell products are seen to be future growth drivers in the biotechnology sector.