India's Biotech Future

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22 Sep 2005 15:54:24 -0000

India's Biotech Future

press-release

 

 

 

 

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ISIS Press Release 22/09/05

 

India's Biotech Future

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Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

 

Public-private partnership is the cornerstone of India's

National Biotechnology Development Strategy, according to an

article in the " bioentrepreneur " section of the journal

Nature Biotechnology (May 2005). The aim is to create a

million jobs and an annual turnover of $5 billion in the

biotech industry by 2010. Science minister Kapil Sibal

released the draft for comment at the end of March until May

2005. The document was then to be submitted to the cabinet

for approval and to be implemented later this year.

 

The new strategy has already aroused strong criticisms from

civil society organisations, coming as it were in the wake

of three successive years of failed GM cotton crops that

have driven farmers into debt and suicide ( " India' GM cotton

fraud " , SiS 26 http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews/sis26.php),

and independent scientific evidence from

all over the world are now confirming those failures

( " Scientists confirm Bt crop failures " , to appear).

 

Vandana Shiva, director of the Research Foundation for

Science, Technology and Ecology, accuses the government of

effectively deregulating the hazardous of biotechnology and

nanotechnology and turning Indian scientists into corporate

slaves ( " Outsourcing ecological and health risks " ,

accompanying article).

 

Criticism has also come from the Indian biotech industry

because the proposed strategy will allow 100 percent foreign

direct investment, thereby threatening the local industry.

The draft policy envisages that by 2010, biopharmaceuticals

– mostly vaccines and bio-generics – will be contributing $2

billion to the biotech sector in India. Clinical development

services are predicted to reach $1.5 billion and outsourced

research services estimated at $1 billion. Agricultural and

industrial biotechnology will contribute the remaining $500

million.

 

This ambitious target is apparently supported by the

government's strong growth data, showing that the biotech

industry grew by 39 percent between 2003 and 2004 to a value

of $705 million, and total investment in the sector also

increased by 26 percent to $137 million.

 

The new policy will allow public funds to be spent on

industrial projects, while scientists employed by public

research institutions can be seconded to private firms. It

also stipulates that at least 30 percent government-funded

programmes must have a commercial partner who will be

responsible for directing research and development towards

commercialisation. This is welcomed by Varaprasada Reddy,

managing director of Shantha Biotechnics in Hyderabad, which

pioneered recombinant vaccines in India in the 1990s. But

Reddy wants at least a 25:75 local/foreign partnership

instead of allowing a 100 percent direct foreign investment.

 

The new policy dispenses with the need for government

approval for equity investment in the biotech sector, unlike

other sectors such as telecommunications or energy. " What

this means is multinational companies can come with

suitcases full of money, buy up plots, build plants, hire

our scientists at low salaries and create wealth for

themselves, " Reddy is reported to have said.

 

But Bhimsen Bajaj, president of the southern chapter of the

All India Biotechnology Association in Hyderabad sees

nothing wrong in having 100 percent foreign-owned companies,

as they will bring new technology and generate jobs.

 

Sources

 

" India's strategy to bridge the public-private

divide " , K.S. Jayaraman, Nature Biotechnology 2005, 23, 523.

 

New Biotechnology Development Strategy, 31 March 2005,

http://dbtindia.nic.in/biotechstrategy.htm

 

 

 

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