Business EconomyPosted at: Sep 17 2021 6:39PM


Reform needed in space of ease of doing science: Prof K Vijay Raghavan

Mumbai, Sep 17 (UNI) Professor K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India, on Friday said that reform was needed in the space of ease of doing science, regulation, university functioning in research and industry academia linkages.
Addressing the inaugural session of the CII Life Sciences Conclave here, he said,''There is an extraordinary desire to do high end research that is globally competitive, and the industry has no shortage of capital but a shortage of risk capital.”
''We need to connect our lab ecosystem to our industry and bring research into our broader ecosystem. Our population, network of labs and the fundamental simplicity of research that is undertaken here will help India grow as compared to similarly placed countries,'' he said.
Dr Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology and Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, said, “Today we have been able to see breakthroughs in silos and the boundaries have gotten blurred between academia, industry and startups.”
''Moving ahead, India will not just be the pharmacy of the world but also the research lab of the world. There is a need to create an industry strategized research partnership platform. The bio-strategy document is in place that will lead India to become a USD 150 billion market by 2025. We now need to focus on how ways to encourage new IP generation and new innovative research, this will require industry collaborations with both academia and startups. Our focus should be on achieving scalability that is matched with sustainability, and we will require at least 10,000 startups in the next five years,'' she said.
''We need to build a biotech sector that is truly vertically integrated,'' said Dr Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson and Founder Biocon.
''The access to the supply chain for reusables, re-agents in biologics and manufacturing is imperative, and it is important that we indigenize a lot of these requirements, so we don’t have any supply chain disruptions. The future belongs to biotech, bioscience and biopharma and we need to invest right now. We need to create a conducive environment to provide the necessary risk capital to scale up. This would require specialized venture funds,” she said.
''The chemical revolution is over, the biological revolution has started,'' said Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Biotech International Limited.
Dr Rajesh Jain, Chairman, CII National Biotechnology Committee and Managing Director, Panacea Biotec, said,''The Indian vaccine manufacturers have tremendously contributed globally as 2/3 children across the world are vaccinated by Indian vaccines. The Indian vaccine industry was more focused on children’s vaccines, the shift is happening towards adult vaccines. We need clinical trial centers across the country and have partnerships with countries all over the world especially in South East Asia, Africa, and Latin America.The biotech industry plays a strategic role in eradicating diseases and curing the, and there is an opportunity to strengthen the Indian biotech sector, with funding needing to go to the area of communicable disease.''
Vivek Kamath, Vice Chairman, CII National Committee on Pharmaceuticals and Managing Director and GM EPD – Abbott Specialty Care, Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, said,''We need a comprehensive infrastructure and regulatory framework that supports innovation and places them alongside global standards along with focus on technology transfer.''
On the occasion,CII launched the report titled “Taking India’s Life Sciences to the Global Stage - “Make in India” to fuel 4x growth in Biosimilars and Vaccines by 2026.” The report maps out the measures needed for growing the biosimilars market from USD 550 million to USD 5-6 billion, and accelerating vaccines from USD 2 billion to USD 4-5 billion. There are 3 plans that have been advocated to transform the global industry: The need for an innovation Mindset to Action. This will require an increase in access to risk capital for mid stage Indian biotech startups, targeted government policies to enhance cash position of biotech companies, human resource augmentation, and making Indian bio-clusters. The next plan is to transform from cost competitiveness to cost leadership through Aatmanirbhar and building indigenous capability, IPR reformations and the reformation of regulatory processes to reduce time and cost. The last point of action is to level the playing field through reinstating the image of Indian made pharmaceuticals and development of capabilities to seek global partnerships.
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