The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has taken over Institute of Life Sciences in Bhubaneswar to be developed as a Centre for Excellence in Biotechnology. The institute, which has been under the direct control of the Government of Orissa, will continue to conduct research in the health sector with an emphasis to India specific problems.

Informing this, Dr B M Gandhi, adviser, DBT said that the take over of the institute came as part of DBT's resolve to set up centres for excellence in all parts of the country. "The institute would continue to research on aging related topics, which it has been doing all along. Newer areas of research would be identified by the committee which heads the functioning of the institute," he said. Institute of Life sciences is the eight institute to be supported by DBT.

Speaking at the a plenary session on "International collaborations in biotechnology" on the second day of the 54th Indian Pharmaceutical Congress (IPC) here, Dr Gandhi said that DBT's mandate is to support R&D and manufacturing of biologicals and also identify and setup centres of excellence in the country. It acts as the nodal point for specific international collaborations and linkages between various ministries and departments in ensuring necessary financial and essential supports for the advancement of biotech research programmes in the country.

According to Dr Gandhi, Indian biotech industry is poised for a major growth with projections forecasting $ 4500 million annual business by Year 2010. At present, the annual turnover of biotech industry in the country is $150 million. By 2005, it should become $ 750 million, he said. Foreign Direct Investments in the area has also shown growth in recent years with FDI in 2002 touching $ 29.5 million. The figure was just $ 10.7 million in 1999.

Dr Gandhi informed that DBT has ongoing bilateral research collaborations with 88 countries across the world. However, in most cases, the collaboration is limited to exchange of information. Pointing out the cases of the US, Russia and Sri Lanka, he said that the programmes in these countries have been extremely successful. Apart from this, DBT has also been in the forefront to see that the country gains through multinational research cooperations through bodies like ASEAN and SAARC.

While contraceptive and reproductive health research is one of the major areas of Indo-US cooperation, Indo-US Vaccine Action Program is the other.

Regarding intellectual property rights and patent related issues, DBT has been instrumental in seeing 99 patents filed. Among the applications, 13 have been granted which includes 7 in the US and the rest in India.

On human resource development front, DBT is supporting 55 institutions in the country in conducting postgraduate, post doctoral, and post MD/MS and also fellowship programmes.