I am happy to inform our members that July 2022 was a very eventful month for ABLE and the biotech industry. Expanding the footprint beyond Bengaluru and New Delhi, ABLE opened the Western Regional Chapter of the Association on July 15. The Chapter will be hosted by the ‘Venture Centre’, Pune, thanks to Dr Premnath and team for facilitating this. The Chapter will provide a perfect platform for all biotech companies in the region to engage with each and other counterparts across the country under the ABLE umbrella.

This happy event was followed by even a greater activity. This was the formal release of the ‘India BioEconomy Report 2022’ (click here to download the report), authored by ABLE for DBT-BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council) on July 19 by the Union Minister for S&T and PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh, along with DBT Secretary Dr Rajesh Gokhale. It was our first formal interaction with the new Minister who used the opportunity to interact with the strong ABLE member delegation and shared his vision for the biotech industry for the next few years. We also had an opportunity to meet with Dr Gokhale after the event who expressed his wish to visit Bangalore and meet with the industry leaders. We will update you more on this soon.

What is heartening is that the national BioEconomy registered 14 % growth in the Covid year of 2021, with nearly $15 billion contribution coming from the Covid Economy comprising vaccines, diagnostics kits, antivirals and other therapeutics. Innovation flourished with three biotech startups being incorporated on an average daily during the year, totalling 1128, industry’s R&D spends touched $1 billion and on average 4 million doses of Covid vaccines were administered daily in 2021.

A 10-member ABLE delegation, comprising key members, also had the opportunity to engage with entire BIRAC team lead by Dr Manish Diwan. We discussed on matters of importance to the industry, explore opportunities for greater cooperation to guide the young entrepreneurs and further strengthen the biotech innovation system with knowledge sharing, mentoring and suitable funding efforts. It was very evident that the BIRAC team was very keen on addressing all challenges related to the Biotech segment.

There are other good news from our members: Serum Institute got the approval for the first ever India-made vaccine (Covovax) in the USA, String Bio raised $ 20 million to deploy its tech platform in Australia, Strand Lifesciences released the Covid-19 genomic surveillance report for Bengaluru based on 12,000+ samples collected from the city, Bharat Biotech planning to produce variant-neutral vaccine against Covid-19 and so on.

Another important development nationally is that many more state governments are looking at promoting biotech industry in a determined manner. Gujarat has released an updated Biotech Policy for 2022-27 with an array of incentives to attract investments into the state. Tamil Nadu has released two forward looking policies: State R&D policy and Life Sciences Promotion Policy in July 2022.

Another pioneering initiative is the ground breaking ceremony for the Anti Venom Research and Development Centre (AVRD) by IBAB at its Electronic City campus in Bengaluru. This unique institution, supported by the Government of Karnataka, will become a repository for a wide array of anti-venom treatments, tailored specifically to the entire region’s needs

I am happy to welcome more than two dozen new members who have joined ABLE in recent weeks and particularly our latest Patron Gold member, Cytiva.

As the nation prepares to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of our Independence, I urge all our member companies too to join the historic occasion by hoisting the National Flag at our premises on August 15. The Flag Code of India has been amended to allow all to hoist the flag through the night on August 15 and need not be lowered before sunset.

Wish you all a very ‘Happy Independence Day’ in advance!

G S Krishnan

Hon. President, ABLE