The 20th edition of BioAsia, beginning on February 24, is expected to give further impetus to the state's efforts to strengthen the life sciences sector.
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Telangana Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday, February 21, mentioned that the city’s production of vaccine doses will be doubled as the life science ecosystem is all set to expand its operations. KTR, as the minister is popularly known, was interacting with journalists on the eve of BioAsia 2023, the marquee life sciences event organised by the Telangana government. The 20th edition of BioAsia, beginning on February 24, is expected to give further impetus to the state's efforts to strengthen the life sciences sector. The minister pointed out that 9 billion doses of vaccines are currently manufactured in Hyderabad annually and next year, the number is likely to go up to 14 billion. "At present, Hyderabad accounts for 35% of the global vaccine production, and next year the city's contribution is expected to increase to 50%," he said. KTR stated that Hyderabad also accounts for 40% of the country's pharmaceutical production. Meanwhile, according to a report by the Times of India, Jayesh Ranjan, principal Secretary of Industries and Commerce was quoted saying that the four leading pharmaceutical companies like Bharat Bio, Biological E, Indian Immunologicals, and Sanofi, that are already present in the city’s genome valley are going to expand their operations, which would result in the increase of vaccination doses contributed by the Hyderabad. KTR further added that Telangana government has set the ambitious goal of doubling the size of the life sciences sector to $100 billion by 2028. It is also looking at increasing the workforce to 8 lakh from the current 4 lakh employees. Listing out the strides made by the state in the life sciences sector, he said Medical Devices Park at Sultanpur near Hyderabad has run out of space. This is the largest medical devices park in the world, the minister said. KTR said Hyderabad Pharma City coming up on 14,000 acres of land will be the world's largest pharma cluster. He hoped that some legal hurdles in the ambitious project would be cleared soon. He said in Genome Valley, the mega cluster for life sciences R&D, 30 lakh square feet of lap space has already been taken by the companies while another 20 lakh square feet of space is being developed. He hoped that in the next 2-3 years even this space would be taken by the companies. Genome Valley is home to more than 200 companies including marquee global names like Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Ferring Pharma, Chemo, DuPont, Ashland, United States Pharmacopeia, and Lonza. (With IANS inputs)
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