Aiming to push the growth of the biotech sector in the country, by encouraging young entrepreneurs to take up research and development (R&D) activities, the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is soon planning to go beyond early stage funding to the next the level. To spruce up this initiative further, the Council, set up by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) is scouting for partners from the private sector so as to attract more funding opportunities to those promising projects that have high commercialisation potential.

BIRAC has shown proactive interest in exploring the possibility of entering into a public private partnership (PPP) with interested parties to attract more resources and investment opportunities. Through this initiative the Council is eager to support and aid those start-up companies showing promising results from their early R&D work. To get a better idea on the nuances of this, the Council is keenly studying the technicalities from those countries like Finland, Sweden, France etc, who have adopted it.

According to Dr Renu Swarup, managing director, BIRAC considering the success rate in those countries, this model has a high scope for adaptability in a country like India, especially since India has a huge talent pool of untapped potential among the youth. Unfortunately, she added, it faces lot of challenges and roadblocks due to lack of investment opportunity which stems out from the lack of confidence among the investors in the industry.

“Lot of good projects with high scope of making it into the market frizzle out due to lack of funding after the initial stage. Thus, we understand that on our part there is an urgent need to initiate confidence building measure among the investors and lenders so that they come forward to invest in this area. Thus to encourage funding and to bring in domain expertise in this area like in other sectors, we are exploring the possibilities of collaborating with venture groups and other private players, which is sure to bring in more investment to those projects that have high potential for commercialisation,” Dr Swarup informed.

The Council is currently having discussion with many private players and other stakeholders to get an understanding on this matter. It is understood that once the modalities for the same is finalised, the government will go forward with this initiative, which is expected to be in place by end of 2015.