Biotechnology

The beginig of a hot pursuit:

     Biotechnology is a true multidisciplinary effort that has been in existence for almost 5,000 years.With advances on the fast forward mode,India is also clinching a big acunk of biotechnology business.

         Biotechnology can mean any technique,which uses living organisms or parts of organisms to make or modify products.Improve plant or animal productivity or to develop micro organisms for specific use.This definition encompasses new biological tools as well as ancient uses.A second and narrower definition refers to new "high end" biotechnology involving recombinant DNA,cell fusion and novel bio-process engineering technique such as gene transfer,embryo-manipulation,monoclonal anti-bodies and so on.

                                                                                                                     Image showing the fields in Bio-Technology

      Biotechnology has made profound impact in the fields of health,food,agriculture and environmentprotection.It has the potential to provide a wide array of benefits to humanity,including treatment for hitherto incurable diseases,safe cheaper more accurate drugs,more nutritional dairy and agricultural products,more resilient and productive crops and tree species,new sources of renewable energy and safer,more effective treatment of waste.

     for instance,diseases such as heart, cerebral vascular,emphysema, bronchitis,pneumonia,cancer,diabeties,AIDS and liver diseasesare incrasingly becoming leading causes of death in all  of these.It may be possible in future to take DNA from reborn babies and analyses 50 or more genes for allelic forms that can predepose the infants to many common diseases and provide therapeutic regims that willcircumvent the limitation of the defective genes.Thus medicine will shift from reactive mode(curing patients already sick)to a preventive mode(keepin people well)with specialized treatment based  on the individual genotype.Reduced cost of medical treatment can be great boon the people, especially in developing countries.Biotechnology can be a boon especially for India, which has large portion of its population dependant on agriculture for their livelihood,very low per hectare,fields.Indian Biotechnology industry is advancing towards new heights in alignment with the growth and progression observed globally.

        The present focus of the biotech industry is on bio-generic pharmaceuticals.The reason for this is long presence in the generic drugs market which is now leading the companies to enter the Bio-generic pharmaceutical market.Biopharrmaceutical market is contributing about 76 percent of the GDP(Gross Domestic Product)

Industry Segments:

    Bio technology industry is classified in to five major segments.They are:Bio-Pharmaceutical,Bio-Agriculture,Bio-informatics,Bio-services,Bio-industry .

The Offering:

    Due to rising cost of research and developement abroad.Indiam companies can offer competitive advantages in: Contract R & D,Contract  Manufacturing, Contract technology Transfer, Contract Trails.

Oppurtunities:

     Huge market for agri-bitech products as the country's economy is sustantially dependent on agriculture.India expected to generate USD billion in revenues and creats over one million biotech jobs over the next five years.India already has developed competence in selected areas that provides the enterprenuers an edge over other countries to set up  viable and competitive biotech industry.Area of core competence in the area of biotechnologyinclude Capacity in Bioprocess engeneering

Challanges:

  One of the most important challenges for India in the coming decades will be harnessing the fruits of biological and biotechnological research for the benefit of mankind.There are areas which require attention of India is to play a leading role in biotechnology .Till now, only patent applications have been field,incluiding five in foreign countries.Two US and seven Indian patents habe been granted which are very few.

 Regards,

 Ravi.