Indian biotechnology is facing the challenges of capital shortage, lack of clarity on regulations and access to quality platform technologies, noted Prof. K.VijayRaghavan, secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT).

The industry is facing funding constraints as the investor community has shied away from investing in early stage ventures. “Although capital is not scarce but the issue is whether it is viable   to invest with the available resources. This creates a limited supply of funds for the industry to access”, said Prof. VijayRagavan, at the Bangalore India Bio 2015 adding that the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) mooted by the DBT enhances the opportunities to support innovation and commercialisation.

Another source of financial assistance of BIRAC is through its advanced technology scheme, Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme (BIPP), where on a  cost sharing basis development of novel and high risk futuristic technologies are identified for funding, he said.

In the area of regulation, there is far more clarity needed. However, it is vital for the industry to understand that it is not the quantity but quality of regulation that needs to be focussed on.

Indian biotech has the advantage of labour costs and its qualified English-speaking workforce. However, there is need for access to quality platform technologies. Although many start-ups are engaged in this area, there is need for public-private partnerships to take the innovation forward, he said.

In biotech drug development, clinical trials are a critical component.  The industry faces difficulties to access large and small animal facilities for pre-clinical tests on mice. Now this is where we see the need for platform technologies to replace these tests. In the case of large animals, permissions from DBT are mandated to carry out the drug analysis.

However, such issues can be overcome with the concept of Biotech clusters that could provide services under one roof.  The DBT Biotechnology Science Clusters in Pune, Northern Capital Region (NCR), Faridabad and Mohali would give a fillip to integrated science, engineering and medicine in a multi-disciplinary environment. These clusters would enable the development and access to technology platforms. It would result in strategic collaborations between industry and academia. The industry, on its part, needs to come up with a concerted action plan to utilise the available infrastructure and resources more efficiently and focus on nurturing innovation to take the biotech industry to the next level of growth, said Prof. VijayRaghavan.

The combination of computer science and computational biology has led to an explosion of Big Data analysis which will give researchers a better comprehension on prevention of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in the younger population. There is also ample scope to assess pain management from studies in  marine biology.  Anti microbial resistance is proving to be a bane in the Indian healthcare space. India’s bio-pharma expertise could chip into developing new drugs to keep this condition at bay. There are success and opportunities in the Indian biotech space. But we do see paucity of infrastructure, capital and regulations impacting the growth prospects of this sector, said Prof. VijayRagavan.