Innovate in India (i3)
The first
ever Industry-Academia mission to accelerate biopharmaceutical development in
India will be formally launched by the Cabinet Minister for Science and
Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Dr. Harsh
Vardhan in New Delhi on 30th June 2017. The program named Innovate
in India (i3) will witness an investment of USD 250 million with USD 125
million as a loan from world Bank and is anticipated to be a game changer for
the Indian Biopharmaceutical industry. It aspires to create an enabling
ecosystem to promote entrepreneurship and indigenous manufacturing in the
sector.
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. Be it the Rotavirus vaccine,
heart valve prosthesis or affordable insulin, India has been a forerunner in
these and many more. Despite, these advances Indian biopharmaceutical industry
is still 10-15 years behind their counterparts in the developed countries and
faces stiff competition from China, Korea and others. The lacuna primarily
exists due to disconnected centers of excellence, less focus on translational
research and staggered funding. 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. 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”
As a flagship
program of the Government of India in collaboration with World Bank, 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. Currently India has only 2.8% share in the global
biopharmaceutical market, the program would elevate this to 5% resulting in an
additional business opportunity of 16 Billion USD.
The
Mission will provide a holistic and integrated approach to strengthen and
support the entire product development value chain for accelerating the
research leads to product development. This will help not only in immediate
product development addressing public health needs, but will also help to
create an ecosystem which will facilitate development of a continuous pipeline
of products.
The
Mission to be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council
(BIRAC), a Public Sector Undertaking of Department of Biotechnology will bring
together expertise from national and international corridors to provide
strategic guidance and direction to move promising solutions through the
product development value chain. The program thereby stands unique in its
approach as it becomes a cradle to innovate, co-create and co-facilitate
scientific discoveries and offers young entrepreneurs an avenue to engage with
the best in the industry.
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