The biotech sector of Karnataka sees the Prime Minister’s 19-point agenda in the Start-up India campaign spurring innovation and fostering sustainable and scalable ventures.
The Union government's efforts to boost the start-up eco-system with its 'Start-up India' campaign has made the pharma and biotechnology sectors more confident to steer innovation backed by technology and intellectual property. Companies view the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Bill allowing start-ups to exit faster, within 90 days, without the fear of failure as the pick of the bunch among the slew of announcements.
The 19-point action plan under the Start-up India campaign provides not just tax waivers but encourages public private partnership model for 35 new incubators, 31 innovation centres at national institutes, seven research parks and five new bio-clusters. These along with tax waiver for three years, no inspection for three years of start-up businesses, 80 per cent rebate in patient costs, introduction of self-certification and a mega fund of Rs.2,500 crore and later to Rs.10,000 crore are seen to accelerate the growth of entrepreneurs.
The start-up initiatives, once implemented, could prove to be a game-changer in terms of promoting innovation based entrepreneurship biotechnology /lifesciences/healthcare. Some of the key features which stand out are the ‘fund of funds’ of nearly Rs.10,000 crore, portal for easy registration and exit, bio-clusters, rebate for IP filing and income tax relief upto 3-5 years. We are considering a workshop to discuss and create an awareness among start-ups about this, said Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed, director and COO, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms.
Karnataka is home to the largest number of start-ups in the country and is also the first state to announce a start-up policy besides being the world’s second-fastest-growing start-up ecosystem. In the biotech sector, start-ups have sustained in the Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre (BCC) and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platform(C-CAMP) which is India’s premier technology and innovation hub.
In fact C-Camp also forms an important part of the Bangalore bio-cluster. It acts as an enabler of bioscience research and entrepreneurship by providing research, development, training and service in state of the art technology platforms.
Specifically in the biotechnology sector, start-ups are in vogue. Biocon too which is India’s largest and fully-integrated, innovation-led biopharmaceutical company is serving customers in over 100 countries. Some of the other leading start-up biotech companies in Karnataka are Bhat Biotech which is specialized in the design development, manufacture and marketing of diagnostic products and biotechnology based products.
The company unveiled DNAmp the first indigenous PCR machine last year. XCyton Diagnostics which developed a molecular diagnostic platform for critical infections ‘Syndrome Evaluation System’ (SES) and Aten Biotech engaged in research of gene therapy rare diseases, among others.
The 10 year-old Anthem Biosciences which is a Contract Research Organisation (CRO) major focuses on its core strength of chemistry and biology based actives. It is continuing the development of biologicals, probiotics, enzymes, nutritional products and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Bioneeds India, a CRO, offers discovery, development and regulatory service for pharma, biotech, agrochemical and medical device companies. Strand Lifesciences is engaged in genomics research and Gangagen Biotechnologies is developing products to control multiple species of bacteria pathogenic to humans, particularly antibiotic-resistant strains. Some of the incubated start-ups within C-Camp are Theramyt Novobiologics, BugWorks Research, Viravacs, Biomoneta, Sea6Energy and Cellworks Research India’s wet lab.
Pandorum Technologies, another biotechnology start-up working on tissue engineering, has developed artificial tissue that performs the functions of the human liver. These 3D printed living tissues enable affordable medical research with reduced animal and human trials, will eventually lead to full scale transplantable organs. The company is supported by grants from the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and is located in the C-CAMP, Bengaluru Bio-Cluster.
“The artificial liver tissues not only represent a major step towards on-demand manufacturing of human organs for transplant, but also have potential to be a game changer for developing new medicines and vaccines. “This is a significant milestone. Being able to engineer complex tissues such as the human liver is no easy task,” said Dr. Tuhin Bhowmick, co-founder, Pandorum Technologies.
In September 2015, C-CAMP and The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) signed a Letter of Intent to create the US-Indo Life Science Sister Innovation Hub. The pact was inked in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the Bay Area.
The Innovation hub is aimed at fostering links between both these exciting innovative hubs and enhancing science based entrepreneurship, research, academia and businesses. Through this, both the organizations plan to promote collaborations in scientific research, encourage co-development of innovation led products and push these technologies towards commercialization. Innovation-based start-ups will be nurtured and accelerated through incubation and funding opportunities by leveraging the existing entrepreneurial ecosystem in both countries.
“This partnership with QB3 provides an opportunity to make stronger ties with the San Francisco Bay area cluster. We are hopeful of some ground breaking collaborations and outcomes from this partnership in the coming years,” Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, director & COO, C-CAMP.
The state's biotech ventures are sustained by the presence of notable research institutes like the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), National Centre for Biological Sciences(NCBS) and the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Research (JNCAR). The Bangalore Innovation Centre houses Indoor Biotechnologies which develops allergy management products.
Relaxations to make things easier for start-ups
In 2014, the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), set up by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) unveiled research and development (R&D) incubation clusters in five centres across India : at IKP Knowledge Park, Hyderabad, C-CAMP, Bengaluru, Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer, New Delhi, KIIT Technology Business Incubator, Bhubaneswar and Venture Centre (Entrepreneurship Development Centre), Pune.
With healthcare being a pre-dominant arm in the life sciences sector has several start-ups like for Forus Health, MapMyGenome, Coeo Labs, Practo, along with home healthcare initiatives like Medwell Ventures, Care 24 and Portea. C-CAMP too houses many a bio-science research and entrepreneurship venture.
With the start-up action plan, we will see more young entrepreneurs take the risk of starting their own venture and building innovative solutions to solve meaningful problems for Indian and global markets. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Bill that will allow start-ups to exit faster, within 90 days, is a great step as more people will take the plunge to start a new venture, without the fear of failure. We believe that acquisitions are the way to grow faster, and with this bill, we hope to see more start-ups collaborate and solve the problems faster, with a solution that is scalable for a larger audience, said Shashank ND, founder & CEO, Practo.
The relaxation of the financial and labour norms will make things simpler for young start-ups so they can focus on innovation without getting entangled into these rules which are more applicable to larger entities. The Atal Innovation Mission will help foster innovation among students, which in turn encourages more youngsters to enter the field of entrepreneurship to create some ground breaking products for India and global markets, said the Practo chief.
"The PM's speech was like an icing on the cake. Policies like no capital gain, no taxes for three years and most importantly the Start-up Fest will allow us to build a healthy collaborative environment with an aim to grow in this competitive world," said Anurav Rane, CEO, PlanMyMedical Trip.com