National Biopharma Mission supporting 101 projects across India: Dr Jitendra Singh

New Delhi: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh has informed that the National Biopharma Mission is supporting 101 pan- India projects in Biopharma sector which has provided increased employment opportunities.

“These projects have engaged 1065 manpower including 304 scientists and researchers. The Mission is also supporting development of human capital by providing specific trainings to address the critical skill gap for strengthening product development.” Minister stated this in a written reply in the upper house of the Parliament.

Dr Jitendra Singh said the National Biopharma Mission is supporting more than 150 organizations including academia, start-ups and MSMEs. Projects have been sanctioned to 30 MSMEs to support affordable product development. The MSMEs have also benefited from the shared facilities, clinical trial networks and Technology Transfer Offices supported under the Mission. Various trainings in product development, bioethics and regulatory aspects have been conducted under NBM where representatives from MSMEs have participated.

The National Biopharma Mission (NBM) is a Cabinet approved Program entitled Industry-Academia Collaborative Mission for Accelerating Discovery Research to Early Development for Biopharmaceuticals – “Innovate in India (i3) Empowering biotech entrepreneurs & accelerating inclusive innovation”; of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), being implemented through Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) with a mandate to enable and nurture an ecosystem for preparing India’s technological and product development capabilities in bio pharmaceuticals (vaccines, biosimilars), medical devices and diagnostics.

The Mission has supported strengthening infrastructure for the Biopharma sector, with the establishment of 11 shared facilities for providing testing, validating & manufacturing services to Start-ups, MSMEs in the area of vaccines and bio-therapeutics. The functional facilities include GCLP labs for vaccine characterization, GLP labs for analytical testing of biosimilars, cGMP manufacturing and process development labs.

The Mission aims at developing an ecosystem for affordable product development through the following verticals:

♦ Development of product leads for Vaccines, Biosimilars, Medical devices and Diagnostics that are relevant to the public health need by focusing on managed partnerships. The Mission has been supporting the development of Vaccine candidates (15) for Cholera, Influenza, Dengue, Chikungunya, Pneumococcal disease, COVID-19 and related technologies (4); Biosimilar products and related technologies (21) for Diabetes, Rheumatological and ophthalmic diseases, Cancer; Medical Devices & Diagnostics (29) including devices for imaging, pumps for dialysis, endoscopes, bone implants, MRI scanners and diagnostics for COVID 19.

♦ Establishing and strengthening shared facilities for product development and validation. Support is being extended by the Mission for establishing shared infrastructure facilities (22), both for Biopharmaceutical (Vaccines, Biosimilars) & MedTech device development. Establishment of hospital based and field site based Clinical Trial Networks (16) for trials of vaccines and bio-therapeutics are also supported.

♦ Supporting development of human capital by providing specific trainings to address the critical skills gap. Under the skill development program 46 training modules have been conducted in areas: bio-therapeutics characterization, sero-surveillance, bioethics, environment health and safety and in total around 7000 personnel attended these trainings.

♦ Establishment of Technology Transfer Offices. To help enhance industry academia inter-linkages and provide increased opportunities for academia, innovators and entrepreneurs, to translate knowledge into products and technologies, 7 Technology Transfer Offices are being supported.