India will account for at least 20 to 25 per cent of the global market share in bio-similars over the next five years, according to a study on ‘Innovation in Life Sciences in India - Current state and future imperatives’, done by BioAsia-KPMG.
The report that said the country was well-poised to be a key player as the world tried to answer the innovation challenge in the eco-system of existing life sciences research, was on Tuesday released by CEO of GVK Biosciences, Manni Kantipudi.
He informed that an estimated 1,200 of the 2,500 scientists with the company were focussed in research and development. He said while risk funding and risk capital was a challenge, the situation was improving and expressed confidence that the eco-system of funding in R&D was on the rise.
Head-Life Sciences Practice with KPMG, Utkarsh Palnitkar said it was imperative for India to be showcased better as an R&D destination. While the challenges continued in the form of focus on pure-play R&D, the situation was encouraging as innovation in life sciences was slowly taking root in India.
Government support in the form of seed-funding in the early stages, creation of infrastructure and the eco-system to nurture innovations and investor-friendly policies were helping but a single platform to address policy issues, quality translational research from academia, a time-bound plan to resolve clinical research issues, incentivising Indians to re-locate from elsewhere to India and channelising private funding towards R & D, would help enormously, Mr. Palnikar said.
Chairman of BioAsia’s Organising Committee K.V. Raghavan said the latest edition of BioAsia, held earlier this year had unveiled the promise of innovations in the life sciences space. An analysis of key observations made at the BioAsia conference had led to the identification of a set of recommendations that would be submitted to the government to enable an innovation-friendly eco-system in India, he added.
