New Delhi, July 01 (IANS) The National Biopharma Mission aimed at accelerating biopharmaceutical development in the country was launched by Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan here on Friday.
The programme named Innovate in India (i3) will witness an investment of USD 250 million with USD 125 million as a loan from World Bank. It aspires to create an enabling ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the sector.
The mission, to be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), is expected to bring together expertise from national and international corridors to provide strategic guidance and direction to move promising solutions through the product development value chain.
“India has been an active player in the pharmaceutical industry and has contributed globally towards making life saving drugs and low cost pharmaceutical products accessible and affordable for those in need,” Vardhan said during the launch of the mission.
He described the importance of the mission saying that there was an immediate need felt to focus on consolidated efforts to promote product discovery, translational research and early stage manufacturing in the country to ensure inclusive innovation.
“i3 is committed to addressing these gaps with a mission to make India a hub for design and development of novel, affordable and effective biopharmaceutical products and solutions,” Vardhan said.
“The aim of the mission is to enable and nurture an ecosystem for preparing India’s technological and product development capabilities in biopharmaceuticals to a level that will be globally competitive over the next decade, and transform the health standards of India’s population through affordable product development,” he said.
“It promises to boost the growth curve for domestic biopharma in India by accelerating the translation of research concepts into viable products, supporting clinical validation, enabling sustainable networks for collaboration between industry and academia, and supporting entrepreneurial ecosystem amongst many others,” he added.
He emphasised that India’s share of 2.8 per cent in the global biopharmaceutical market would elevate to 5 per cent with this programme. “It would result in an additional business opportunity of 16 billion USD,” he added.
