The biotech sector in India is expected to see significant changes in the coming months with the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA) Bill likely to be passed in this session of the Parliament. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT)  is confident that the new legislation, which would now take the industry to the next level of growth, will be passed, stated Dr MK Bhan, secretary, DBT.

“All approvals to pass the NBRA Bill  are made and we are confident of its implementation”, he stated during his visit to Bangalore. The new Bill is meant to address burning issues the sector is facing today. Stressing that  two challenges the country is facing now are the issue of safety of  biotech products and the quality of scientists, Dr Bhan assured that  the DBT will be  addressing both the issues.

In order to maximize its support to the industry, the DBT has been able to receive a 30 per cent raise in its annual grant during the Union Budget. There is also tremendous  commitment among the state governments and the DBT is willing to invest more resources, he said.

The biotech sector which has achieved considerable momentum in terms of garnering the required revenues, has allowed the department to identify the key strengths of its pool of human resources. In this regard, specific biological infrastructure is being developed and massive investments are coming  to establish national institutes to support the future growth areas.

A lot of autonomous companies are in the process  of setting up in the country. These include companies in clinical development service agency  and those engaged in several  dedicated operations like  regulatory  services, clinical trial support,etc. There will also be a training academy for principal investigators and planned  to train 200 of these, he said.

“Further repositories for pathogens, safe and secure sources of cell lines, apart from  Bio Safety Lab (BSL)- 3 and BSL 4 containment facilities and vast manufacturing facilities are being put  in place,” he said.

“Translational science challenges are emerging. We hope to transform the medical and veterinary schools to  focus on research so that industry can find the capable and well trained manpower for clinical research  for new ideas and development”, said Dr Bhan.