India should aim to maximise life sciences r&d, says report
By encouraging greater investment and activity in bioinformatics, applied and translational research
If India is to develop a world-class innovation hub for the global biopharma industry, it needs to shout louder about its capabilities in information technology, engineering, and clinical research, a report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) suggests.
The report, Biopharma R&D: Moving the Needle in Innovation, says that although the Indian government has declared 2010 to 2020 the ‘Decade of Innovation’, the country must encourage greater investment and activity in bioinformatics, applied research, and translational research to maximise opportunities for r&d in the life sciences.
‘India can become a global innovation hub, but there are several challenges to fully realising its potential, particularly around policy, infrastructure, and creating collaborative partnerships,’ said Kim Wagner, a BCG senior partner and co-author of the report.
The report builds on BCG's ongoing work with the USA-India Chamber of Commerce (USAIC) and is based on interviews with more than 30 global r&d leaders. It was launched at today’s (14 May) annual USA-India BioPharma & Healthcare Summit in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US.
The report predicts that emerging markets will drive nearly 70% of the growth in the global biopharma industry by 2015. While this presents a significant commercial opportunity for biopharma companies, r&d investments will need to be tailor-made not only for India, but also for Brazil, Russia and China.
‘Traditional business models don't easily translate to these markets, and strategies need to be modified,’ said Wagner.
The report highlights oncology as an area in which India can make major strides, along with IT, and in-place clinical-research capabilities.
It also identifies three opportunities in which India can play a role in driving global oncology r&d:
Building and maintaining unique assets
India can help develop a vast cancer-specific genetic-information database through studies in genomics and proteomics. This could be used to identify new biomarkers for personalised medicine, as well as better clinical-research models for more accurate r&d.
Creating process efficiency through translational-research hubs
With faster patient-recruitment times, a large population of orphan diseases, and lower costs, biopharma can be faster in deriving proof of concept and getting results in relevant drug r&d.
Driving applied research in emerging science
India can increase funding and infrastructure support for ongoing research in emerging nanotechnology based applications in drug delivery and diagnostics.
‘India offers several advantages in r&d, but it is behind,’ said Bart Janssens, a BCG partner and co-author of the report. ‘The current US$400m clinical-trial market is considerably less than the forecast expectations of more than $1bn.’
In fact, the report has found that China has overtaken India in terms of share of new trials, which rose from a 1:1 China-to-India ratio in 2008 to a 2:1 ratio in 2011.
‘Better collaboration on policy and improvement in current infrastructure gaps is essential to support the local innovation pipeline and ensure faster access to new drugs for Indian patients,’ added Janssen.
