The pressure on healthcare costs is creating a growing market for affordable and good quality genomics and India is uniquely placed to tap the US $ 80 billion especially in the US and Europe, the Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said here on March 23, 2003.

Addressing the ASSOCHAM Knowledge Millennium III Summit on the pharma business, Dhindsa said the Indian pharmaceutical industry has a competitive advantage in terms of cost effectiveness, plant maintenance and labour.

"India with its large pool of scientific and technical manpower, and low R&D costs can emerge as a preferred destination for clinical & genomic research and apart from drugs & formulations, there is great scope for global sourcing of research support services from India," he said.

According to him, the rising trend to outsource low cost R&D capabilities in biotechnology presents a tremendous opportunity for pharmaceutical companies in India to undertake contract research for overseas corporations. Typically, opportunities exist in basic gene sequencing work. DNA library preparation, genetic research related to medical diagnostics and early stage drug development.

The Minister said the study of all the genetic material in the chromosomes of human being would generate powerful genetic approach to collect knowledge about diseases as well as developing more effective treatments.

Not only the accurate prediction of responses to certain drug would be possible whereby medical interventions would become more specific and successful but it would also be possible to reduce the toxic responses and side effects and therefore industry, government and institutions need to come together and formulate strategies to tap the potential of biotechnology.

Dr. Samir Brahmachari, Director, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Prof. B.Jayaram Coordinator, Supercomputing facility for Bioinfomatics and Computational Biology, IIT, Delhi and Dr. Krishna M Ella CMD, Bharat Biotech International Limited, Hyderabad were the speakers who addressed the scientific sessions.