BIO AGENDA: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Union Minister D. Purandareswari (centre) and State Tourism Minister J. Geeta Reddy at the conference in Hyderabad on Thursday. - Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD: The Centre has given the green signal for setting up a sector-specific SEZ in biotechnology at Genome Valley, near here, according to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Inaugurating Global Bio-Pharma Conference-2006 here on Thursday, Dr. Reddy said that Hyderabad was the fastest growing city in biotechnology R&D innovation and contract manufacturing.

Stating that biotechnology would help improve economic development, he called for its effective use to increase food production. Promising the Government's help, he urged pharmaceutical executives, entrepreneurs and scientists to synergise the opportunities and challenges in establishing new ventures.

He wanted more collaborations between the State and the West to solve emerging and life-threatening diseases, including chikungunya, dengue and flu.

Biotech on upswing

Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development D. Purandareswari said the Indian biotech industry's revenues were $1.1 billion in 2004-05.

The Association of Biotechnology-Led Enterprises (ABLE) was aiming to push the growth to $5 billion to generate one million jobs by 2009.

Referring to the challenges faced by the biotech sector, she said one of the problems was lack of qualified candidates as there was gap between curriculum and market demand.

Talking to reporters later, the Minister said that she would take up the issue of curriculum with Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal.

The US-based biopharmaceutical company Novavax was planning to collaborate with city-based Bharat Biotech to produce a vaccine for pandemic flu, its executive director Niranjan Kumar said. He said the trials were planned for next year as the company was in the process of developing the technology.

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