The National Biopharma Mission was approved by the Cabinet in 2017 with an aim to transform the health standards of the country through affordable product development and bring 5-7 biopharmaceutical products closer to market. 

The program named Innovate in India (I3) is an industry- academia collaborative mission of Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in collaboration with World Bank for accelerating discovery research to early development of Biopharmaceuticals and to be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

Under NBM financial and mentorship support has been provided to industry and academia for indigenous product development. This includes projects on development of components of upstream and downstream biologics manufacturing, such as engineered cell lines, media, resins and bioreactors which are currently in-licensed, requiring huge capital. To boost innovation, Mission is also supporting development of novel biologics, novel vaccines and medical devices like MRI, ventilators,  diagnostic probes and Medical grade camera.

Objective

    • Specific Product development under vaccines, biosimilar and medical devices

    • Building shared infrastructure for product testing, characterization and manufacturing

    • Promoting scientific research through establishment of translational research consortia and development of novel biopharmaceuticals and devices

    • Skill development through trainings 

    • Creating and enhancing technology transfer and intellectual property management.

Features

    • Focus is on the development of new vaccines, bio-therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices to address the rising burden of diseases in the country.

    • The programme named Innovate in India (i3) started with an investment of USD 250 million with USD 125 million as a loan from World Bank.

    • The mission, is to be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

    • It is proposed that India would work towards achieving its target of $100 billion Biotech Industry by 2025 and also capturing 5% of the Global Biopharmaceutical market share from its present 2.8%.

    • The Program would aid academic researchers (through enhancing their translation capability); empower bio-entrepreneurs and SMEs (by decreased cost and risk during early stages of product development) and the industry (by elevating their innovation quotient).

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants. The views expressed here are personal.)