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Govt keen on US-India biotech alliance

Shahid K Abbas In New Delhi

The government at the behest of the Confederation of Indian Industry is seriously contemplating a proposal to launch a US-India biotech alliance under the aegis of US-India Economic Dialogue, sources in the department of biotechnology under the ministry of science and technology told rediff.com on Saturday.

Sources said the proposed alliance would be coordinated by CII and US India Business Council. The major activities of the proposed alliance would include support to the development of biotech industry in India, promoting commercial joint ventures, collaborative research, public-private partnerships, technological trade, licensing and distribution agreements.

The alliance would also focus on specialised conferences and seminars, executive missions to both countries, fellowships and funded research, meeting of experts for regulatory and legal reforms, advocacy to remove impediments in the biotechnology trade, setting up of working group on international trade and treaties, videoconferences and Internet-based communication and technical cooperation to build regulatory capacity.

Possible areas for research may include bio-informatics, genomic, diagnostics, vaccines, recombinant therapeutic proteins, new drug discovery, agriculture, industrial and environmental biotechnology, and training.

On funding for research activities in the biotechnology field, the sources said while no application (for research funding) was pending, for more than one year, before the department of biotechnology, delays, if any, were due to receipt of incomplete applications.

The sources further pointed out that whenever a proposal was recommended by the expert committee, some procedural formalities had to be completed before according the final approval.

The department has a Project Registry Cell, which maintains the records of applications received and the decisions taken on those for further proceedings, they added.

There were sixteen expert task forces and one Biotechnology Research and Promotion Committee, which meet to recommend or reject proposals.

Site visits and presentations to the Task Force were regular features for evaluation of project based on their scientific merits while a transparent and efficient system has been established which is improved and modified from time to time, said the sources.

Meanwhile the ministry sources denied reports that Canadian authorities were also keen on making investments in Indian biotech companies.

"No proposal has so far been received from any Canadian authority," said the sources.

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