Vellore : 

India is emerging as a vaccine manufacturing hub, thanks to the biotechnology solutions, noted Dr Renu Swarup, advisor to the Department of Bio-technology (DBT), Government of India, who is also the managing director of Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the DBT.

She was delivering the Kunthala Jayaraman Endowment Lecture as part of the third edition of the Bio Summit at VIT on Thursday.  She said, “Successful trials of vaccines for rotavirus, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, dengue, typhoid, malaria, leprosy, anthrax and cholera were underway in collaboration with many national and international agencies.”

She said the goal of the department was to develop 100 billion US dollar industry in biotechnology in the country by the year 2025, to fuel economic development and employment generation. “A dynamic and vibrant biotech industry is one of the main engines of innovation,” she pointed out, adding, “We have the potential and capacity, and what is needed is collaboration to move forward.”

The infrastructure support and research capacity building by the Indian Government had helped the country to be looked upon by other developed countries as a capable partner, to collaborate in the field of biotechnology. The genome initiative undertaken by India had helped in making considerable progress in the sequencing, she added.  She said biotech science clusters were being developed at Faridabad, Mohali and Bangalore, to enable integrated growth of science, engineering, agriculture and medicine in a multi-disciplinary environment. Dr Shrikant Anant from the University of Kansas School of Medicine spoke about cancer stem cells. Abhaya Kumar, CEO and MD of Shasun Pharmaceuticals, Chennai, spoke on entrepreneurship, while Dr Ganesh Sambasivam spoke about his company Anthem.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by Express News Service / August 08th, 2014