The Indian biotechnology sector is at a cusp. For accelerating the innovation-based future growth, massive R&D funding is essential especially for early stage projects in the form of “ignition grants”, points out industry observers.
More fiscal and tax incentives for R&D, contract research as well as manufacturing needs to be provided. In addition, a clear, streamlined, single- window regulatory body needs to be established which is empowered to make decisions that are transparent and based on scientific evidence. This apart infrastructure and capacity-building should also be beefed up for expediting the growth of the sector, they add.
“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”, said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson, Vision Group on Biotechnology, government of Karnataka and CMD Biocon Ltd.
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. In Karnataka, the growth is driven by bio-pharma research & development, bio-informatics& bio services.
“Under the Vision 2015 strategy, we are looking at the sector to be Rs. 40,000 crore ($10 billion). Biotech industry together with bio pharma manufacture, bio services, bio medical devices and bio informatics has been the growth drivers of the economy”, added Shaw.
Several innovative firms, from across all segments of Indian biotechnology, be in bio-pharma, bio-agri or systems biology, have been endeavouring to integrate R&D into their business models with success. Even CROs that have reached a threshold are strategizing themselves to grow as “drug discovery” firms rather than just remain as a contract research entities, said Dr. Satya Dash, Chief Operating Officer, Association of Biotechnology Led Entrepreneurs (ABLE) .
In bio-pharma, exciting R&D activities are taking place in combination vaccines, diabetes research, oncology, stem cell research, medical devices and diagnostics. The bio-agri and bio-industrial sectors are conducting innovative research in crops with improved yields and disease resistant, next generation biofuels and proprietary enzymes that have a role in food, textiles and other industries.
Important developments are taking place in systems biology with several firms conducting cutting edge work in predictive biology be it in signalling pathway analysis, developing tools to analyse and integrate information such as next generation sequencing and imaging data, as well as developing virtual organ or disease models to facilitate drug discovery.
In 2008-09, the biotech sector in India had registered earnings to the tune of Rs. 12, 137 crore generated by the 350 companies of which Rs, 3,000 crore was from 180 in Karnataka. In 2009-10, the Indian biotechnology industry had shown an impressive growth rate of 20 per cent with earnings to the tune of Rs. 14,199 crore ( US$ 3 billion) in 2009-10, is all set to cross the $ 5 billion mark target set for fiscal 2010-11, according to Shaw. A visible trend in the biotechnology sector is the focus on bio-similars and bio-generics which is essentially driven by the need for low cost drugs. Companies are also looking to tap the opportunity provided by blockbuster drugs going off patent over the next few years. Another area of interest is nano medicine, nano diagnostics and nano-enabled drug delivery mechanisms.
In the last Bangalore Bio, around Rs. 285 crore of investment came in to set up biotech parks in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. The central government had also given the clearance to open a genome sequencing centre . Of the Rs. 285 crore, Rs. 250 crore is allocated to establish IT and BT parks in the districts. Both centre and state would be chipping in 50 per cent each. These include agri-biotech park at Dharwad, Marine Biotech Park at Mangalore, Animal House at Bidar and Phyto-pharmaceuticals Biotech Park at Mysore.
The technical support for the biotech park are from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka Veterinary Animal Fisheries University and Central Food Technology Research Institute (CFTRI). The Centre has also cleared the Genome Sequencing Unit, which is part of the Karnataka Bio-IT initiative. The unit will come up in the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology(IBAB) located within the Bangalore Helix, Biotech Park at the Electronics City. The Department of Biotechnology has chipped in Rs.200 crore to establish a the ‘iStem’ at the Bangalore campus of National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) which will focus on training and basic research.
The first dedicated institute for stem cell forms a part of the national ‘bio-cluster’ or an industry interaction platform of which NCBS and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) are part. It will work in co-ordination with the NCBS and C-CAMP to form the Bangalore bio cluster where it will develop technology and enable entrepreneurship initiatives. The effort would also be to comprehend the mechanism of stem cells and its potential to treat degenerative disorders.