IIT Bombay (IITB) will soon play the role of a contract research organisation (CRO) for the pharma and biotech industry. IITB would be initially targeting startup biotech and pharmaceutical companies, having promising ideas, both in India and abroad. The IITB has appointed McKinsey & Co as consultants to explore avenues in this area.

IITB's Department of Chemical Engineering has over 50 PhDs under its belt, some of the top brains in the country and 15 top class laboratories. The institute has an initial corpus of Rs.20 crore. "Recombinant protein technology is an area of interest for us. Our focus would be more on process optimization and development," said Prashant Bapat, senior research fellow at department of Chemical Engineering, IITB. The funding would be shared between the interested company and IITB. The partnering company could avail of the facilities and intellectual properties at IITB, he added.

IIT is a world-class institution renowned for its technical education. It has already set up an Industrial Research & Consultancy Centre (IRCC). IRCC coordinates the research and development activities at IIT Bombay. IRCC will collaborate with industry and government organizations to foster research and development. The institute has also set up a Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, which would work on assisting young discoverers at the institute develop entrepreneurial skills.

IITB would be organizing a one-day symposium titled - Biotechnology - a new dimension to chemical engineering - at its chemical engineering department in Mumbai on March 13. The symposium, which is targeted at the academics and industry is being jointly organised by Chemical Engineers Association and the IIT.