India won’t just be the pharmacy of the world but also the research lab of the world, and the bio-strategy document that is in place will lead India to become a $150 billion market by 2025, said Renu Swarup, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology & Department of Science and Technology.
Speaking at the third edition of the Life Sciences Conclave organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Swarup said that “our focus should be on achieving scalability that is matched with sustainability, and we will have at least 10,000 start-ups in the next 5 years”.
‘Make in India’ report
CII released 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 to grow the biosimilars market from $550 million to $5-6 billion, and accelerate vaccines from $2 billion to $4–5 billion.
Research and capital
Meanwhile, K Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, 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 the 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.
Three points of action
In the report, three plans have been advocated to transform the global industry. The first is the need for an innovative Mindset to Action. This will require an increase in access to risk capital for mid stage Indian biotech start-ups, targeted government policies to enhance the cash position of biotech companies, human resource augmentation, and the creation of Indian bio-clusters.
The next is to transform from cost competitiveness to cost leadership through Aatmanirbhar and building indigenous capability, IPR reformations and reform of regulatory process to reduce time and cost.
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The last is to level the playing field by reinstating the image of Indian made pharmaceuticals and developing the capacity to seek global partnerships.
“The access to supply chain for reusables and re-agents in biologics and manufacturing is imperative, and it is important that we indigenise a lot of these requirements so we don’t have any supply chain disruptions,” said Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chair and Founder, Biocon.
She added that “the future belongs to biotech, bioscience and biopharma and we need to invest right now. We need to create a conducive environment that provides the necessary risk capital to scale up. This would require specialised venture funds.”
“Indian vaccine manufacturers have contributed tremendously globally as two-thirds of the children across the world are vaccinated by Indian vaccines. The industry was more focused on children’s vaccines and now a shift is happening towards adult vaccines. We need clinical trial centres across the country and partnerships with countries all over the world, especially in South East Asia, Africa, and Latin America,” said Krishna Ella, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharat Biotech International Limited.