A three-pronged approach to provide fillip to pure-play innovation, develop a world class life sciences eco-system and have enablers for sustainable growth will be the way forward for Telangana to realise its vision of making the Life Science industry, in the State, to $50 billion in revenues by 2030, according to the Life Sciences Advisory Committee.
In its Telangana Life Sciences: Vision 2030 report, released on Tuesday by Industries and IT Minister K.T.Rama Rao, the Committee, headed Dr. Reddy's Laboratories chairman K.Satish Reddy, also emphasised the need for accelerated growth of the industry.
Revenues of the Life Sciences sector in the State were nearly $13 billion and growing at 12% with pharmaceutical companies contributing to 94% and biotech focused entities and medical devices for the rest. The current growth rate, if it continued till 2030, could lead to a three-fold increase in current size. However, to realize the vision of $50 billion in cluster revenues (and $100 billion ecosystem valuation), the sector would need to to grow around 15%, the report said.
On impetus for pure-play innovation, the report said there is need to scale-up infrastructure to aid start-ups in graduating to commercialisation stage; augment current sources of funding for existing and emerging innovations as well as establish technology sharing and transfer linkages within and between industry and academia.
Also, it called for efforts to make the State the leading clinical trials destination in India.
On creation of life sciences eco-system, the Committee said the proposed Pharma City should be conducive to breed an integrated healthcare ecosystem, including the need to boost equipment manufacturing industry. Leading MNCs should be attracted as anchor tenants, the report said.
Self-reliance in APIs
Towards self-reliance in manufacturing of API (active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediaries), the Committee said Telangana, with Hyderabad already the pharmaceutical hub of India, could take some initiatives to develop a strong API industry. This would help de-risk India’s external dependence for sourcing these materials. One of the measures could be to carve out a dedicated cluster for manufacturing API/intermediaries in the upcoming Pharma City.
On enablers for sustainable growth, the report called for measures to improve ease of running operations seamlessly for existing industry; financial incentives to foster fresh investments; and setting up of an investment promotion body for the State’s Life Sciences sector. It highlighted the need to devise training and finishing programmes to bridge the State’s talent employability gap.
The Life Sciences Advisory Committee served as a structured interface for the government with the leaders of industry and academia to brainstorm on ideas, identify opportunities for the State and provide impetus to Telangana’s growth trajectory, a release said.
Mr. Rao said: “our vision is to become one of the top Life Sciences clusters in Asia and a leading cluster in the world by 2030. The report prepared by the Life Sciences committee will give us the strategic direction in achieving this vision.”
