Over the last decade-plus, China has become a booming biopharma innovator thanks in part to a big boost from its government.
Now the question is, can its neighbor to the south, India, make a similar advancement?
Long known for manufacturing generics, vaccines and small-molecule drugs, India is attempting to shift its focus, with help from its government.
The country will invest 100 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) over the next five years to increase research and production of biologics and biosimilars. The government is creating three new national research institutes and funding seven other current national research facilities. India also is working to establish an ecosystem of more than 1,000 clinical trial sites.
The goal is to transform India into a world biopharma hub and capture “5% of the global biopharmaceutical market share,” the government said in a budget document.
In acknowledging the country’s high diabetes and cancer rates—and the increased use of biologics and biosimilars to combat these disorders—India said that its new funding “positions biopharma as a high-value, future-facing segment critical for both public health and economic growth.”
The initiative, dubbed the Biopharma Strategy for Healthcare Advancement through Knowledge, Technology and Innovation (SHAKTI), is designed to support the domestic development of vaccines, antibody treatments, gene therapies, cell implants, insulin and recombinant protein drugs. It is also geared to reducing India’s dependence on imports and “enhance India’s competitiveness in global biologics supply chains,” according to the budget document.
Funding will also be aimed at strengthening India’s regulatory framework for biologics by attracting more specialized scientific and technical experts. The government is setting out to improve regulatory efficiency and speed up the evaluation of treatments to align with global approval timelines.
Biopharma SHAKTI is a step up from India’s previous efforts to bolster its presence in the industry. The National Biopharma Mission (NBM), which was co-founded by the World Bank and launched in 2017, earmarked 15 billion rupees ($166 million) for the development of new vaccines, bio-therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices to address the rising burden of diseases in the country.