The Andhra Pradesh government is planning to set up three incubators in an effort to generate the necessary technology for different areas of the biotech industry. The proposed incubators are a Pharma Biotech Incubator at Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park and Agri Biotech Incubator at ICRISAT in Hyderabad and a Marine Biotech Incubator at Vishakapatnam.

To boost the pharma industry further, a Pharma City would be established in Vishakapatnam. An incubator centre has also been proposed at Vishakapatnam, which will look after the chemical side of the pharma industry.

AP is one of the few states in the country, which has a biotech policy. The state is trying to attract foreign investment in the biotech sector, Dr KV Raghavan, senior scientist and project coordinator for Pharma Biotech Incubator, told Pharmabiz.

On the significance of the pharma Biotech Incubator Centre (BTIC) to be set up at Hyderabad, Dr Raghavan told that the basic aim of the incubator is to kick-start new companies. It would focus on offering technologies for enzymes, bio-pharma products, antibiotics, recombinant DNA, bio-organics etc.

Research lab space will be made available to clients on lease, multipurpose and specialised pilot plant facilities (to be set up by clients themselves) will be provided, in addition to a pre-BTIC facility, which will be a bench scale facility to be set up in the premises of Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT).

The incubator centre would be set up in two phases. The first phase would involve setting up of research labs, pilot plants, service centres (analytical, information, utility etc.) and facilities required for daily processing. The first will have a corpus of Rs.23 crore. The second phase may include setting up of more specialised facilities. And financial institutions can fund this phase. This may have a corpus upto Rs.17 crore, but its investment would to a great extent depend on the success of phase I, in terms of utilisation of services.

The incubator centre is expected to be completed within the next 2 years. In the next eight months the pre- BTIC facility would be set up, and civil construction works have already begun.