Year Ender 2024: India's Facilities Are Rapidly Improving To Support Translational Research

India has always been an energetic and successful contributor to the pharmaceutical and biotech industry globally.  India produces 60 per cent of the global vaccines and 20 per cent of generic medicines but holds only a 4 per cent share of the pharmaceutical sector for new drugs.  The huge upsurge in vaccine development started during the pandemic and gave a big fillip to pharmaceutical innovations landscape in India. 

One of the earlier drawbacks in India has always been a gap between academic research and the requirements of the industry.  Industry in India also had not been a strong proponent of investing heavily in R&D. However, the scenario has significantly shifted today. Government of India is empowering industries to participate and invest in research.  For example, in the biotechnology sector, BIRAC (DBT) was created to support product-oriented R&D in universities with industry partners to speed up translation to the market. This has led to the growth of the new field of translational research in the pharma and biotech sector. Translational research refers to the complete chain of activity that connects laboratory basic research to final product validation, approval and use.  This chain includes, basic research, proof of concept, prototype development, validation, manufacturing, scale up, quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC), regulatory requirements and clinical trials to market approval. 

India's facilities are rapidly improving to support translational research and innovation, with significant investments in cutting-edge laboratories, biotechnology parks, and specialised research centres. Government initiatives such as Make in India and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) promote infrastructure development and increase access to advanced technologies. Academic institutions are upgrading their facilities to include high screening tools, genomics platforms, and bioinformatics resources. Furthermore, the rise of public-private partnerships is driving the creation of cutting-edge translational research hubs and incubators across the country.

We believe the new trend in India is translational medicine which can put India on the global map.  In 2024 may new translational research activities have taken place whereby innovations were done in India and translated to products. These activities include new drugs for various diseases, vaccines, medical devices and digital innovations for point of care use. Translational hubs are also arising across the country and this is great news for India.

On the downside India needs to develop quickly in regulatory capacity to handle the volume of activity. Government of India needs to invest massive manpower increases in the regulatory sector so that many more capable professionals can both support, guide and approve innovations and not be too bureaucratic and excessively conservative. Secondly industries need to invest much more in R&D, a trend that is on the rise.

Finally new academic programmes focusing on translational research need to inspire students to take advantage of the present positive ecosystem in India to develop the necessary translational skills to be competitive globally. 

With an aggressive pharma and biotech sector combined with the rise of many quality-conscious private universities with international collaborations to compete with traditional government institutes the setting is ripe for elevating India to the global stage in the coming years.

Dr Shantikumar Nair

Guest Author Dr Shantikumar Nair, Dean, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Head of Research Faridabad Medical Campus (Delhi NCR), Dean of School of Nanoscience and School of Pharmacy