Inside India’s vision to become world’s bio manufacturing hub

Just how influential does India want to become in the world of bio-manufacturing? The details emerged at the weekend after the country’s Union minister Jitendra Singh announced it intended to become the world’s biggest source of vaccines, and other biological products by 2025.

India, colloquially known as the world’s biggest pharmacy for its generic medical products was initially a key player for Covid-19 vaccine distribution in Africa before it was forced into export restrictions following its own rise in infections.

But Singh said the episode only propelled the country to innovate and place its biotechnology ambitions on a faster track.

In February this year, the Indian government decided to focus on what it called a product development and commercialisation biotech ecosystem in smaller towns, a programme meant to reduce overreliance on the bigger producers in huge cities.

Singh said the government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be funding biotech start-ups across the country with incentives worth about $150 billion by 2025.

Connections

In this programme, Indian authorities also want to link the scientists in the academia with the industries, building some sort of connections that could encourage research institutions to launch or enter into entrepreneurial projects in their related science or technology fields.

India’s tentative National Biotechnology Development Strategy envisages an entirely new playbook to coordinate high-impact research funding in a bid to promote scientific research on par with global standards.

This month, Singh announced the Genetic Version of Indian rice and chickpea (DNA panArray) developed by National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR) and the Union Minister of State who is in charge of Science & Technology explained that the country is determined to top the list. This rice will reportedly need less water and labour to grow, saving on costs for the world’s biggest producer of rice, a common staple food across the world.

"India's Bio-Economy is on its way to achieve a 150-billion-dollar target from the current 70 billion-dollar to contribute effectively to the Prime Minister's vision of a 5 trillion-dollar economy by 2024-25," he said this week at a public function.

This is in reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 75th Independence Day Speech from the Red Fort.

Mr Singh further said that the roadmap for the next 25 years will be determined by scientific and technological innovations and scientific prowess in all walks of life and called upon young scientists to walk the talk.

“This will be possible through a very well-articulated vision, mission and goals, driven through a set of well-defined strategies and a clearly laid out implementation Action plan put forth by the government,” the minister highlighted.

Experts note that Indian biotechnology is built on entrepreneurship and innovation given the long history of diseases in the country.

The country has therefore accumulated years of experience and scientific knowledge to prevent and treat them.

This industry has further evolved over the last three decades with its growth being primarily driven by vaccines and recombinant therapeutics at present but predictions indicate that upcoming pharmaceuticals will belong to protein-based therapeutics.

Biotech destination

This is why the Modi-led government is already working to boost the biotechnology sector under flagship programmes such as 'Make in India' and 'Start-up India'.

Also known as Bharat, the country is ranked amongst the top 12 biotech destinations in the world and ranks third in Asia.

Though current estimates value the industry at $63 billion in FY2019-20, it is expected to grow to $150 billion by FY25.

The biotechnology industry comprises more than 3,500 biotech start-ups at present, which are estimated to reach 10,000 by 2024-25.

As part of the plan, it is developing an 'Ease of Doing Science Index' to ensure effective use of both disbursed funds and the time to weed out sub-standard research work.

For the biotech industry, a draft document by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) suggests that the basic research be ready for the challenges of the future such as precision medicine, epigenetics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and stem cell technology.