The three-day Bangalore India Bio 2016 has begun here on a positive note as the Karnataka government said that it was making all efforts to strengthen the bio-cluster ecosystem in the state. It also stated that it would be the first in the country to unveil the Orphan Drug Policy and release the Biotech Policy version 3 in a few months.

The government will set up incubation centres at Dharwad, Belagavi, Bidar and Mangaluru besides take the signing of letter of intent between Bengaluru and Boston for the creation of a biotech corridor.

The event, being held from February 9 to 11, 2016 organized by the Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka, Vision Group on Biotechnology and event partner MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications, was inaugurated by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences.

The theme of the event 'What's Trending in Biotech India' is focusing on bio pharma, agri biotech, bio-IT, bioinformatics, genomics, data mining, predictive medicine are some of the futuristic sciences.

According to V Manjula, principal secretary, department of IT, BT and S&T during 2015, global biotech sector generated $7.6 billion and venture capitalists supported 28 per cent of funding for which more than a quarter was for early stage funding. The year also witnessed 20 per cent increase in R&D investments by companies which outpaced the growth of the sector.

“We see innovation and R&D to propel the growth of Indian biotechnology on similar lines that of US, Canada and EU. Karnataka is contributing 30 per cent of its revenues to the Indian biotechnology turnover and is home to leading institutions like IBAB and the Bangalore Innovation Centre which are promoted by the government.

“Skill development will drive the industry. The state’s Biotechnology Finishing Schools have to date trained 5,000 students of which 80 per cent been suitably paced. Karnataka is already a biotech hub and has created a momentum in research and development. Our strategy is to invest and expand skill development to spur early stage innovation and provide access to capital”, she said.

According to Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson Vision Group on Biotechnology in Karnataka and CMD, Biocon, sustained dominance of human capital can share India’s science and technology prowess to the world. India has a rich a human capital and is on a sound platform to take off into the future. There are 7,00,000 post graduates, 15,000 PhDs with 15,000 biotech graduates. We need to convert the rich talent pool. Biotech is a multidisciplinary role with considerable opportunities for science graduates.

Indian biotech sector in 2015-16 is valued at US$ 11 billion registering 20 per cent growth and is gearing up to achieve US$ 100 billion by 2015. Bio pharma accounts for 50 per cent of this revenue. In order to achieve this target, the need for the hour is to invest in human capital and technology. We also need US$ 5,000 billion investment, said Shaw.

Prof K VijayRaghavan, secretary department of biotechnology said that Karnataka has the potential to lead in biotechnology research with the presence of leading institutions like IISc, NCBS and JNCASR.