Takshashila Roundtable on Energising India's Biotech Sector

Takshashila Institution held a roundtable on ‘Energising India’s Biotech Sector’ on Wednesday, December 7, 2022, at our office in Bengaluru. The discussion centered around the recommendations put forward by us for India’s biotech sector over the last two years.

The participants included Dr. Sunil Laxman (InStem, Bengaluru), Kavitha Iyer-Rodrigues (CEO & Founder, Zumotor Biologics Inc.), Dr. Varsha Sridhar (CEO & Co-Founder, Molecular Solutions Care Health LLP), and Dr. Shruthi Vembar (Asst. Professor, Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology), who were joined by Dr. Shambhavi Naik, Manoj Kewalramani, Mihir Mahajan, Anupam Manur, Aditya Ramanathan and other staff members from Takshashila.

Biotech and life sciences sectors are critical for India’s post-pandemic economic recovery. The opportunity is ripe for India to emerge as a global leader in biotech by 2025 as companies look to rebalance supply chains from China. The roundtable discussion focused on the existing roadblocks which need to be overcome to make this happen.

Improving funding for biotech research remains a top priority for India. From small grants for research projects, we need to move towards long-term research-related investments, particularly from the private sector, which are linked to commercial incentives, for enabling a robust biotech sector in the country.

Patent buyouts, advance market commitments, intellectual property filings in foreign jurisdictions, funding from the international pharma sector, and talent retention policies are some of the options in this regard. Increasing the number of doctorates given each year and creating sustainable careers for talented resources within the country is also critical. Capital investments by VCs in the biotech and life sciences sectors must also be explored to a greater degree.

The discussion concluded with the assessment that India must work out a biotech policy that can optimise outcomes, given our scientific and logistical capacities. India must focus on specific segments within the sector and attempt to scale up massively, instead of trying to do too many things at once. The government has an important role to play in the biotech sector, especially given its ability to fund research and regulate activities. However, it is also necessary for the biotech sector to be led by an ecosystem approach, where multiple stakeholders such as scientists, academia, investors, and private companies come together to make India a biotech leader.