The National Biopharma Mission has been launched by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology on 30th June 2017 in New Delhi. This is an Industry-Academia mission to accelerate biopharmaceutical development in India that has been approved by the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs in its meeting held on 17th May, 2017. Further, as per the Cabinet approval, this Mission for Accelerating Discovery Research to Early Development for Biopharmaceuticals – “Innovate in India (i3)” Empowering biotech entrepreneurs & accelerating inclusive innovation will be implemented at a total cost of Rs. 1500 crore for a period of five years and 50% of the grant will be arranged through the World Bank loan.
The following are the objectives of the Mission:
i. Development of products from leads that are at advanced stages in the product development lifecycle and relevant to the public health.
ii. Strengthening and establishing shared infrastructure facilities for both product discovery validation and manufacturing.
iii. Developing human capital by providing specific training to address the critical skills gaps in researchers, nascent biotech companies across the product development value chain, including in business plan development and market penetration.
iv. Creating and enhancing technology transfer and intellectual property management capacities and capabilities in public and private sector.
The Mission Programme of Department of Biotechnology, will be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) a Public Sector Undertaking of the Department. BIRAC as an umbrella Product Development Partnership (PDP) would facilitate this program by bringing together partners through existing frameworks for specific program goals and would facilitate this program by involving established organizations with relevant expertise in product development
The programme will specifically focus on the development of new vaccines, bio-therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices to better address the rising burden of diseases in the country. It will also bring isolated centres of excellence together, enhance regional capabilities and strengthen the current bio-clusters network in terms of capacities as well as quantity and quality of output.The programme will help deliver 6-10 new products in the next five years, create several dedicated facilities for next-generation skills.
The program would aid in preparing India’s technological and product development capabilities in the biopharmaceutical sector to a level so that it is globally competitive.
This information was given by Minister of State for Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences Shri Y.S.Chowdary in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha