The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has set apart nearly Rs 450 crore for setting up two bio-cluster projects to be located at Faridabad in the National Capital Region and Bangalore.

For the Health BioSciences Cluster in Faridabad, 40 km off New Delhi, 200 acres of land have been identified. The Bangalore bio cluster is coming up in the campus of National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS).

Over the next 10 years both these clusters together are expected to absorb an investment of over Rs. 1,000 crore. The Bangalore and the NCR bio-clusters will primarily have a health sciences focus. Another cluster planned at Mohali in Punjab will have an agri-biotech focus, Shrikumar Suryanarayan, CEO, NCR Health BioSciences Cluster told Pharmabiz in a telecon.

The Faridabad Life Sciences Cluster has just commenced site development and will take 24 months before it becomes fully operational. It will have multiple institutions like the UNESCO Regional Centre for Biotechnology Training & Education, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute comprising of Viral and Infectious Diseases Centre, a Paediatric Biology Centre Platform Technology Centre and Clinical Development Services. Faculty from the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi Harvard MIT Health Science and Technology Institute ( HST),Cambridge, (Boston) USA are closely involved in designing and setting up the NCR Biocluster.

However, it will shortly commence operations from interim facilities at Gurgaon. Hiring of staff is on and over the next two years, it is expected that these interim premises will be completely filled up and the institutions will be ready for a move to the main campus at Faridabad which should be ready, he said.

The Bangalore bio-cluster will comprise of Stem Cell Research Institute and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (cCAMP). These are partly operational and would be fully commissioned by this June. Professor K Vijayraghavan, director, NCBS is overseeing the development of the cluster.

The bio-clusters will provide a total eco-system for innovation on one campus. The new model of educational institutions along with the advanced centres for product development, clinical development, pilot facility, animal house, technology platforms, including specialized centres for Vaccine Development and Molecular Diagnostics will help to offer services from bench-to-bedside. Each of these facilities are independent institutions with their own administration. These are being structured to help faculty and researches access all facilities on the campus and interact with each other in a multidisciplinary environment where effective translation of ideas can occur, said Shrikumar Suryanarayan.

An Incubation Centre which is also on the cards will offer researchers and scientific personnel to take an interesting idea forward, taking advantage of the infrastructure available on the bio-cluster campus.

“This bio-cluster concept is a novel one to create a culture for innovation which requires people of different disciplines, skills and abilities to team-up to translate an idea into practice. Therefore, close proximity of people, in an easy-to-interact environment nurtures innovation which is vital to create the next generation of novel products and services that can give a big fillip to the Indian biotechnology sector,” said Shrikumar Suryanarayan who was the former president of R&D at Biocon and gave up his career to join the government to help in driving this initiative forward.