Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday strongly appealed for support to set up the proposed International Institute of Excellence in Life Sciences in Hyderabad to make the city one of the top five biotechnology destinations in the world. While he asked Dr R A Mashelkar, Director-General of CSIR, to help bring the Institute to Hyderabad, N Vaghul, Chairman of the ICICI Bank, said with support from entrepreneurs like Dr C Pratap Reddy of the Apollo Hospitals and Dr Anji Reddy of Dr Reddy's Labs, Naidu's dream would certainly become a reality.

The occasion was the inauguration of the two-day International Knowledge Millennium Conference on " Drug Discovery and Healthcare in the Knowledge Economy - India's Opportunities," jointly organized by ICICI Knowledge Park, CII, CSIR and the Genome Valley sponsored by Shapoorji Pallonji.

Listing out the various facilities already set up in the state in the field of IT, BT and PT (pharmaceutical technology), Naidu sought the support and help of Silicon Valley entrepreneur and EPPIC Chairman, Dr Bala Manian, to replicate the Valley in the state. The Chief Minister said the government would provide all necessary infrastructure for companies interested in setting up centres in the city. He exhumed confidence that Hyderabad was all set to overtake Bangalore in more than one aspect over the next three years.

Inaugurating the conference, Governor Dr C Rangarajan asked the industry to develop drugs which were relevant for the developing and underdeveloped countries. Quoting a WHO report, he said over $56 billion were being spent on health research worldwide but only 10 per cent of that amount went into research on diseases that afflicted 90 per cent of the world population. Along with protection to innovation and intellectual property rights (IPR), it was also necessary to ensure that the new discoveries were diffused widely. This might not be always possible with the monopoly granted by patents. It was, therefore, necessary for the governments and the policy-makers to work out balances between the need for innovation and the need for technology transfer, Dr Rangarajan said.

Dr Mashelkar said Hyderabad would soon become the knowledge capital through the vision of Naidu. It was his magic touch that was transforming the city into a knowledge hub. India, he said, was a land of ideas, whereas America was a land of opportunities. The question was how to make India, AP or Hyderabad into a land of opportunities. "We should not miss the bus this time, we have already missed many," Dr Mashalkar said.

N Vaghul of ICICI Bank said the purpose of this conference was to initiate action so as to take advantage of the post-2005 scenario. He said the ICICI Park developed by his bank was so successful that instead of the original plan for seven phases, he would now have 15 phases.

Ashok Ganguly, Chairman, IKMC and Chairman of ICI Ltd, explained how Hyderabad was selected for setting up the ICICI Knowledge Park which was the brainchild of Vaghul and himself. He said Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh were in the run but they were impressed by Naidu's passion for biotechnology. He said the youth of AP could join the mainstream to convert knowledge into wealth.

In his Theme Paper, Dr Bala Manian said, "India had a great potential to become a strong global player in the life sciences industry. With a large English-speaking population, world-class academic institutions graduating 70,000 post-graduates and 3,000 PhDs in biosciences every year, India was well positioned to make significant contributions to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. About 10-15 per cent of scientists in pharma/biotech R&D in the US were of Indian origin. Besides, Indian scientific skills were much more cost-effective than those in the western world. Further more, India had world-class R&D infrastructure, a well-developed domestic pharmaceutical industry and recognition of intellectual property rights, giving it an edge in leveraging the opportunity in drug discovery and healthcare. However, India should not overlook the challenges that lie ahead. Unlike information technology, India did not have the reputation of being a strong player in life sciences. India also had a negative perception with regard to confidentiality and intellectual property protection.

"For example, while India had signed the WTO Treaty to respect product patents starting in 2005, the legal infrastructure for recourse was still an open question. Further, India's history of bureaucratic practices in conjunction with the limited availability of Venture Capital makes it difficult for new entrants/smaller players to be successful. India had not historically leveraged academic research into commercial opportunities. But with the right government policies and support, India had a strong chance of becoming a leader in the global life sciences industry. But the country should not miss the opportunity. The global pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a period of transition and is in dire need of a transformation of its R&D strategy. The Indian pharma industry is also undergoing a period of transformation driven by changes in the intellectual property regime. Just as the y2k issue was a catalyst for the information technology industry, these two factors could be the catalyst for making India a strong participant in the global pharmaceutical industry."

K V Kamath, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank, said work on the third phase of the ICICI Knowledge Park would be taken up shortly. He said while the first phase was completed in a record one year, the second was developed in just six months. The third phase would be ready in three months, Kamath said. He said the Park developed by ICICI to support R&D initiatives by offering modular laboratories, had come to a break-even stage with the completion of the second phase. The second phase was inaugurated in the evening by B Gopalakrishna Reddy, Minister for Biotechnology and SSI.

The technical sessions that followed the inauguration of the summit was addressed by N K Ganguly, Director-General of ICMR. Papers were presented by Dr K V Raghavan, Director, IICT, Prof. Ananda Chakravarty, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA, Dr Vaman Rao, Chairman & CEO, Indigene Pharmaceuticals, USA, Dr Syed E Hasnain, Director, CDFD, Hyderabad, Dr Krishna Ella, CMD, Bharat Biotech, Hyderabad, Dr K I Varaprasad Reddy, Managing Director, Shanta Biotechnics, Hyderabad, Dr Gautam Das, COO, Syngene, Bangalore and Dr Manoj Desai, VP, Lead Discovery & Chemistry, Chiron Corpn, USA.