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| S&T minister Dr Harshvardhan (second from right), DBT secretary Prof K Vijaya Raghvan (right) and Dr Renu Swarup (second from left), managing director, BIRAC in the press conference to announce the Pharma Mission |
New Delhi: India
launched Friday an ‘ambitious’ Biopharma Mission to increase amidst highly
competitive environment its share in the rapidly growing global market of
biopharmaceuticals that stands today at US $ 156 billion. It shocks Indians who
believe India to be a ‘science superpower’ to note that it has currently a
meagre 2.8 percent share in the lucrative global pie. The plan is to increase
it to 5 percent in next five years.
Union minister
of Science and Technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan terms the ‘Mission’ a ‘game
changing initiative’. The strategy according to him is to develop a state of
the art infrastructure which would be open to be used by start-ups and
industrial set-ups. Theoretically it sounds promising, but the actual success
will depend on its execution.
Under the
Mission there will be a Scientific Advisory Committee, which will also include global
scientific representatives to steer it. The minister claimed that in the next
five years, 6 to 10 new biopharma products would be launched in the market. If
it really happens the people of India will adore the Mission, scientocrats of the
ministry and upcoming start-up enthusiasts.
The Mission
may be seen in the backdrop of current proclivity of the Modi government to focus
on ‘impact’ of the scientfic research and development, an euphemism for how the
public money is being used to develop products which are useful to Indians or the national economy. This ‘focus’ has resulted into sending government scientific
departments into a tizzy that scurry for business models while formulating
their overall research and development plan. The Biopharma Mission is the
latest example of this.
Interestingly,
India that commands an annual gross domestic product of around US $ 2 trillion
is seeking the help of World Bank in this Biopharma Mission. The Word Bank
would extend a loan of US $ 125 million and the government of India would be
putting in similar amount to make it a US $ 250 million Mission.
The minister
seems gung-ho at the arrangement. He claimed in the press conference called Friday
to announce the mission, “The World Bank is helping first time in an R&D
activity!” Would the presence of Word Bank not deflect focus of the Indian
R&D as the world body is known for subtly influencing national policies?
The minister responded with his characteristic smile, “So long as I am the minister
and Modiji the prime minister, there is no question of any such influence.” “And so far as scientific field is concerned, there is no harm in
seeking foreign collaboration,” he added thoughtfully.
Prof K Vijay
Raghavan, the secretary Department of Biotechnology emphasises that the focus
would be to create a robust Biotechnology ‘ecosystem’ which will not only help
academia but also the industry, especially the startups. It would be a shared
infrastructure.
Dr Renu
Swarup, the managing director of BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research
Assistance Council) in answer to a question said,” We don’t lack availability
of intellect in the country but technology platform is required that we are now
going to create.” “Even industry cannot affford to establish a platform
technology,” she said.
She informs
that the Mission would focus more on new vaccines, bio-therapeutics,
diagnostics and medical devices to better address the rising burden of diseases
in the country. It will strengthen the entire product development value chain
and accelerate research leads to product development, but most important is the
creation of an echo-system which will continue to support a continupus pipeline
of new products.
