In an effort to maximize the opportunities of growth from a subdued economic environment, two international economic development agencies Scottish Development International (SID) and Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) are now in India to nurture the collaborative partnerships to benefit life-sciences.

The agencies who signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Karnataka Biotechnology and Information Technology Services (KBITS) are keen to enable the biotechnology related initiatives in their respective regions and encourage investment opportunities between industry and academia.

We are convinced by Indian life science industry capabilities and see immense value in facilitating joint ventures and technology transfers. Both Scotland and Georgia have technologies that could help Indian companies bring novel products to the market, stated officials from SID and GDEcD.

Anna MacColl, chief executive, Scottish Development International said that over the last one decade, there has been significant growth and investment between India and Scotland. “We see a great deal of synergy and similarity between the two countries. We are keen to deepen and develop relations with India.”

There already 15 Indian companies in Scotland and in life sciences, it is  Piramal Healthcare Limited which has an active pharmaceutical ingredient plant at Grangemouth in Scotland producing anti body drug conjugates for cancer drug. Axsys Health Tech Limited another life sciences company is here to design and develop software.

Further, there are collaborations between Indian hospitals and medical institutions which partner with Scottish Universities to develop joint curriculum.

“The MoU with both SDI and GDEcD will pave the way for strong collaboration between Karnataka companies to partner in the area of clinical research, stem cells and regenerative medicine, translational medicine, medical technology, diagnostics, drug discovery and bioinformatics,” MacColl said.

The Georgia Centres of Innovation which is home to 300 lifesciences companies offers a readymade infrastructure for Indian companies to offload many of the projects including conduct of clinical trials. While we would not be able to compete on cost of conducting a clinical trials as compared to India but we have the eco system of Indian bio-pharma to help conduct the required human studies to enable market drugs in the US, said Amanda Shailendra, senior project manager, Global Commerce, GDEcD.

There are already 41 Indian companies in Georgia and around the same number of enterprises in India too. There are a number of ongoing research and academia collaborations including Serum and Vacigen, Strand and Emory University besides Advinus Therapeutics.