CONTENTS

SECTION I             Introduction

SECTION II            Key Policy Recommendations and Interventions

2.1….  Human Resource Development: Academic & Industry Needs

2.2  …    Infrastructure Development & Manufacturing

2.3  …    Promotion of Industry & Trade 

2.4  ….   Biotechnology Parks & Incubators

2.5  …    Regulatory mechanisms

2.6  …    Public communication and participation

SECTION III            Sectoral road maps

3.1  … Agriculture & Food Biotechnology

3.2  … Bio-resources

3.3  … Environment

3.4  … Industrial Biotechnology

3.5  … Therapeutic & Medical Biotechnology

3.6  … Regenerative & Genomic Medicine

3.7  … Diagnostic Biotechnology

3.8  … Bio-engineering & Nano-Biotechnology

3.9  … Bio-informatics and IT enabled Biotechnology

3.10…Clinical Biotechnology and Research services

3.11…Intellectual Property & Patent Law

 SECTION IV           Conclusion

SECTION I

Introduction

Biotechnology, globally recognized as a rapidly emerging and far-reaching technology, aptly described as the “technology of hope” for it promising to food, health and environmental sustainability. The recent and continuing advances in life sciences clearly unfold a scenario energized and driven by the new tools of biotechnology. There are a large number of therapeutic biotech drugs and vaccines that are currently being marketed, accounting for a US$40 billion market and benefiting over a hundred million people worldwide. Hundreds more are in clinical development. In addition to these there are a large number of agri-biotech and industrial biotech products that have enormously helped mankind.

The Indian Biotechnology sector is gaining global visibility and is being tracked for emerging investment opportunities. Human capital is perceived to be the key driver for global competitiveness. Added to this is a decreasing appetite for risk capital in developed countries, which has led to a decline in the biotechnology sector in these regions where survival lifelines are being provided by the lower cost research environs of the developing world such as India.

For a country like India, biotechnology is a powerful enabling technology that can revolutionize agriculture, healthcare, industrial processing and environmental sustainability.

The Indian biotechnology sector has, over the last two decades, taken shape through a number of scattered and sporadic academic and industrial initiatives.  The time is now ripe to integrate these efforts through a pragmatic National Biotechnology Development Strategy. It is imperative that the principal architects of this sector along with other key stakeholders play a concerted role in formulating such a strategy to ensure that we not only build on the existing platform but expand the base to create global leadership in biotechnology by unleashing the full potential of all that India has to offer.

Why Biotechnology is Important to India

Biotechnology can deliver the next wave of technological change that can be as radical and even more pervasive than that brought about by IT. Employment generation, intellectual wealth creation, expanding entrepreneurial opportunities, augmenting industrial growth are a few of the compelling factors that warrant a focused approach for this sector.

Vision & Mission:

Biotechnology as a business segment for India has the potential of generating revenues to the tune of US$ 5 Billion and creating one million jobs by 2010 through products and services.  This can propel India into a significant position in the global biotech sweepstakes. Biopharmaceuticals alone have the potential to be a US$ 2 billion market opportunity largely driven by vaccines and bio-generics.  Clinical development services can generate in excess of US$1.5 billion whilst bioservices or outsourced research services can garner a market of US$1 billion over this time scale.  The balance US$500 million is attributable to agricultural and industrial biotechnology. 

India has many assets in its strong pool of scientist and engineers, vast institutional network and cost effective manufacturing. There are over a hundred National Research Laboratories employing thousands of scientists. There are more than 300 college level educational and training institutes across the country offering degrees and diplomas in biotechnology, bio-informatics and the biological sciences, producing nearly 500,000 students on an annual basis. More than 100 medical colleges add ~17,000 medical practitioners per year. About 300,000 postgraduates and 1500 PhDs qualify in biosciences and engineering each year. These resources need to be effectively marshaled, championed and synergized to create a productive enterprise.

India is reorganized as a mega bio-diversity country and biotechnology offers opportunities to convert our biological resources into economic wealth and employment opportunities. Innovative products and services that draw on renewable resources bring greater efficiency into industrial processes, check environmental degradation and deliver a more bio-based economy.

Indian agriculture faces the formidable challenge of having to produce more farm commodities for our growing human and livestock population from diminishing per capita arable land and water resources. Biotechnology has the potential to overcome this challenge to ensure the livelihood security of 110 million farming families in our country.

The advancement of biotech as a successful industry confronts many challenges related to research and development, creation of investment capital, technology transfer and technology absorption, patentability and intellectual property, affordability in pricing, regulatory issues and public confidence. Cen