Spurred by the success of the rotavirus vaccine, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has set its sights on developing more indigenous vaccines that could be included in the national immunisation programme.
Various groups were involved in vaccine development for dengue, chikungunya as well as pneumococcal disease, Renu Swarup, Secretary-DBT, told The Hindu on the sidelines of a function held here on Saturday. The National Biopharma Mission was focussed on developing vaccines that were cost-effective and globally competitive, she said.
Innovative ideas
On the dearth of innovative ideas in the biotechnology sector as against the immense scale of resources available for researchers and entrepreneurs, Dr. Swarup said: “Innovations do come in spurts but we are yet to reach our potential. A cultural change as well as a shift in mindset is necessary for this. For this, universities have a major role to play.”
Over the last few years, the department was focused on supporting biotech start-ups, which were known to be a high-risk venture. Several schemes were implemented in recent times to insulate start-ups from setbacks.
Risks
“We have done much to ensure that the risks involved in building start-ups are mitigated. This must not imply that we have merely focused on grant funding. Extra funding need not necessarily fetch you good results. The success of start-ups depended on a lot of other factors. These included facilitating mentoring as part of which we have been connecting them (young start-ups) to researchers and investors. We now see a large number of start-ups getting investor-funding,”she said.
Out of nearly 1,000 start-ups the DBT had supported, around 15% had already reached a level of maturity where they were beginning to receive funding from various sources. Besides, around 70% had become successful entities and were set to attain maturity.
Agri biotech
Dr. Swarup also said while the pharmaceutical industry had benefited most through the biotechnology revolution, agricultural biotechnology was also witnessing a steady growth with the introduction of improved seed varieties. Changes were also felt in other areas including dairy farming, animal husbandry, aquaculture and food processing.
