'Government is Eager to Increase R&D in Life Sciences'- Amitabh Kant

The government has aided the life sciences sector in increasing R&D, which is critical for the future. It is critical to boost the pharmaceutical and medical technology sectors. India has been a major importer of bulk drugs, but the country must promote indigenous drug development.

According to Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, the government is pushing for a production-linked incentive scheme and is supporting medical device manufacturing.

"We have made significant structural changes in clinical trials and regulatory processes." However, in a crisis, we may need to be far more radical in streamlining processes through digitization and transparency in the application approval process. The government must also incentivize biopharma research to help India transition from a low-volume, high-value player to a high-volume, high-value player," he said during a panel session on the first day of BioAsia titled "Two Years into the Pandemic – Challenges, Successes, and What Next?"

The government is also looking into ways to strengthen the R&D system and encourage more industry-academic collaboration. There is a need to promote innovation, global partnerships, and knowledge sharing among our scientific community.

"We need to look at research in emerging areas such as complex generics, biosimilars, orphan drugs, and so on," he added. We need to integrate more deeply with the global supply chain in order to achieve unprecedented scale synergies and become a global player. The future is focused on personalized care and rapid delivery via real-time data and analytics, as well as rapid response."

"There is a new confidence that has been built in the effectiveness of the government in the life science sector," said Dr. Rajesh S Gokhale, secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. Unlike the IT industry, the life science industry requires a supporting system in order to evolve and grow in a healthy manner."

Gokhale also mentioned the DBT's important role in the diagnostic sector's self-sufficiency, wherein the DBT very early on started funding startups, which came in very handy by enabling the manufacture of a large number of kits and now, most importantly, do genome sequencing and tracking every variant.

All of this has been made possible by the department's years of investment in Human Resource Development and the establishment of a variety of infrastructure and institutions that allow them to be used when they are most needed.

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