India’s top biotech policy maker, Dr Rajesh S Gokhale, secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, met with a group of top dozen CEOs of biotech companies on June 5. The meeting was on occasion to show case India’s biotech capabilities to them and facilitate more investments from the US to India.

The meeting was organized by Biocom California, leading biotech Association of California and ABLE (Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises), India. Dr Gunjan Bagla, founder, Amritt Inc, an ABLE member company and advisor to Biocom California, moderated the discussions along with his colleague, Mr Umesh Damle.

The participants from US included Mr Tim Scott, CEO, AustinPX and Chairman of Biocom California, Dr Joe Panetta, President and CEO, Biocom California, Mr Cliff Emmons, Presdent, Accelerated Healthcare Innovations, Dr Jugnu Jain, CEO and Co-founder, Sapient Biosciences, Ms Alyssa Huffman, CEO and Founder, Allumin8, Mr Patrick Johnson, President, Sydnexis, Dr Sajan Joseph, director, Novartis, Dr Veena Krishnappa, venture capitalist, Mr Srini Palluri, VP, ThermoFisher Scientific, Dr Sesha Thakur, ThermoFisher Bio Innovations.

From India, besides Dr Gokhale, Dr Alka Sharma, senior advisor, DBT, Dr Sanjay Mishra, DBT, Dr Dhananjay Tiwari, S&T counsellor at Indian Embassy in Washington DC, Mr G S Krishnan, President, ABLE, Dr P M Murali, President, ABLE Council of Presidents and Mr Naryanan Suresh, COO, ABLE, participated.

In his opening remarks, Dr Panetta, explained how Biocom’s engagement with India began two years ago when the organization decided to set up relationship with leading bioscience ecosystems in the world. India was identifying as one of the best to engage, along with Korea and Japan A Biocom delegation visited India for 10 days in 2023 and ABLE had arranged very productive meeting with key biotech players in the country. He was emphatic that India’s bioscience excellence in many areas will help increase collaboration with California’s leading companies for mutual benefits.

Dr Gokhale highlighted India’s biomanufacturing capabilities demonstrated during the Covid pandemic when the country delivered daily more than 4 million doses of covid vaccines, made in the country to all citizens. India also conducted over 1.2 million covid tests daily throughout 2021 using home-made kits. Indian companies were provided technology and knowhow to produce a range of antivirals and other therapeutics during the pandemic by top global companies to reach out to these markets.

He welcomed more engagements and investments into India from the USA and emphasized that the government regulatory processes area becoming faster and aligned to the global standards and US companies will have no difficulty in accessing the Indian markets.

Many participating CEOs talked about their many successful collaborations with Indian companies and some of the talked about some procedural issues that delays procurement and handling of various key materials into and out of India. And they requested Dr Gokhale to simplify some of these processes.

ABLE President Mr Krishnan, informed members about the great interest in California companies setting up their development and production units for smart proteins in India. Dr Murali highlighted the need for more Indian biotech startups to access growth capital and how they are flipping to the US to access funds here.

Participants agreed to engage with each other continuously over the next few years and deepen the relationship between companies and institutions.

The meeting was on occasion to show case India’s biotech capabilities to them and facilitate more investments from the US to India.