World Bank loan for Biopharma Mission

World Bank loan for Biopharma Mission

What has happened?

The government has secured a loan of about Rs. 1,600 crore from the World Bank to develop new vaccines, medical devices and medicines

Key points

• The money will be disbursed over five years and is part of the Department of Biotechnology-led National Biopharma Mission.
• The goal is to have 6 to 10 new products in the next five years and in the process create a slew of jobs.
• It was approved by the Cabinet in May 2017 and launched on June 30, 2017.

National Biopharma Mission

• The National Biopharma Mission has been launched by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology on 30^thJune 2017 in New Delhi
• This is an Industry-Academia mission to accelerate biopharmaceutical development in India that has been approved by the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs in its meeting held on 17^thMay, 2017

Objectives of the Mission:

• Development of products from leads that are at advanced stages in the product development lifecycle and relevant to the public health.
• Strengthening and establishing shared infrastructurefacilities for both product discovery validation and manufacturing.
• Developing human capital by providing specific training to address the critical skills gaps in researchers, nascent biotech companies across the product development value chain, including in business plan development and market penetration.
• Creating and enhancing technology transfer and intellectual property management capacities and capabilities in public and private sector.

Focus on

• The programme will specifically focus on the development of new vaccines, bio-therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices to better address the rising burden of diseases in the country.
• It will also bring isolated centres of excellence together, enhance regional capabilities and strengthen the current bio-clusters network in terms of capacities as well as quantity and quality of output

Implemented by: BIRAC

• The Mission Programme of Department of Biotechnology, will be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) a Public Sector Undertaking of the Department
• BIRAC as an umbrella Product Development Partnership (PDP) would facilitate this program by bringing together partners through existing frameworks for specific program goals and would facilitate this program by involving established organizations with relevant expertise in product development