Telangana is the next investment hotspot for the bioscience sector, feel experts

Hyderabad: Most of the industry leaders and experts at the panel discussion on ‘Make in Telangana’ agreed that the state has infinite opportunities and world-class infrastructure. Organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), conference gained traction with sessions on Pharma, Healthcare, and Life Sciences.

The speakers for the Flagship event included Dr. K Anand Kumar, Managing Director, Indian Immunologicals, Mr. Madan R Krishanan, Vice President MITG APAC & VP-MD India Subcontinent (South Asia), Medtronic, Mr. Krishna Kanumuri, Managing Director, Sai Life Sciences and Mr. Sanjay Singh, Partner, Deal Advisory Head, Life Sciences Sector. The session was moderated by Mr Shakthi Nagappan, Director – Life Sciences, Govt. of Telangana.

Mr. Shakthi Nagappan while moderating the session highlighted the strengths, policies and ecosystem of Hyderabad and Telangana in the life sciences sector. Alluding to the vision of the State Government to double the value of the ecosystem to USD 100 Billion by 2030, he gave an overview of the initiatives that Hyderabad Pharma City, Genome Valley 2.0, Medical Devices Park, Digital Medicines Hub, B-Hub, among others rolled out by the Government.

Talking about how Hyderabad has emerged as the Vaccine capital of the world in the presence of good institutes such as CCMB, Dr. K Anand Kumar stated that the city was driving growth of the Pharma industry which came in very handy for early manufacturing in Vaccine. He pointed out that post a similar discussion on COVID-19 vaccine moderated by Hon’ble Minister, Mr. KT Rama Rao during the first week of August 2020 and a follow-up recommendation note sent by the State Government to Center, Department of Biotechnology has reached out to understand the manufacturing capacity, stage of development of vaccine, etc. This will be utilized to devise the distribution strategy of vaccines.

Mr Krishna Kanumuri stated that the ecosystem of Hyderabad facilitated the growth of Sai Life Sciences. Institutes such as IICT in Hyderabad had been instrumental in starting a lot of companies in Hyderabad. Speaking on the overall policy landscape for the Life Sciences sector in India and Telangana, he mentioned that while the policy environment in India is absolutely up to the required standard, the government needs to work on the publicity of the policy. He also pointed out that the focus areas should be innovation, training, and the next generation research.

Mr. Madan Krishnan stated that the talent pool, consistent policies and supporting business environment in Hyderabad have been primary reasons for Medtronic’s choice to make one of their largest investments here. He also pointed out that the center in Hyderabad has over 150 patents and more than 400 IP disclosures to its name.

He stated that with “Make in India”, the idea of Design, Research and Development in India should also be considered as the real transformative engines. He pointed out that continuity and predictability policy in India can go a long way in inviting foreign investors.

Mr. Sanjay stated that companies across the globe are extensively looking at India for their expansion plans. Among other factors, the companies are primarily looking at factors such as proximity to R&D, stability of policy and tax regime, partnership potential with the government.

He pointed out that making available the required plug and play infrastructure for companies to start their operations quickly will facilitate investment attraction and that the Telangana Government has taken a lead in this direction with initiatives like Hyderabad Pharma City and Medical Devices park among others.