The Lucknow Biotech Park, a joint venture of Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and government of Uttar Pradesh, is all set for inauguration in October 2006. The Park, spread over eight acres of land on the outskirts of Lucknow city offers start up, incubation and state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities for biotech entrepreneurs. Shanta Biotech is among the first company that has secured an R&D facility in the park.
The park has come up with an initial investment of 12.5 crores from the DBT. The state government contribution came in the form of free land. Commenting on the uniqueness of the project, Dr P K Seth, CEO, Biotech Park said that "the park is the first technology incubator" in the country. The identified areas in healthcare sector for intensive growth at Biotech Park are human and animal healthcare products including therapeutic aids, immuno-diagnostics, biosensors, vaccines, gene therapy, monoclonal antibodies, nutraceuticals and cosmetics.
While Shanta has already leased out one of the lab facilities in the Park, a start up company, ICRA Biotech is in the process of operating a cord blood cell bank within the Park. "Sepragen Corporation, a US based scientific instrument major has sought one acre of land in the Park. Chandan Diagnostics is to acquire 6,000 sq ft in the Park. Another US company Clintec Research has also booked space in the Park to oversee its clinical trial operations in the country," Dr Seth said.
He was also hopeful of research tie-ups with US universities like University of Ditroit and University of Illinois. "Our objective is to attract first generation entrepreneurs to the Park. The network strength of Lucknow institutions can be of great help to them," Dr Seth added.
The Biotech Park is managed by a committee, which has representatives from all drug research institutions of Lucknow. The Park has turned out to be a networking hub for all these institutes that are focusing on drug research and natural products development. The institutes that have associated with the Park include Central Drugs Research Institute (CDRI), National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC), Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI), Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (KGMU) and Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP).
"We have common facilities including pilot plants conforming GMP GLP and ready to use units on rental basis in the Park. The facilities include bio-business support centre, centralized analytical facilities, distillation, extraction and up scaling, bioinformatics centre, common effluent treatment plant, incinerator, uninterrupted power supply, conference and training rooms and developed plots on lease," Dr Seth explained.
The distillation unit in the Park is already operational through a public private partnership with Next Gen-Biofertilizers and Aroma Products.