'National biotech policy need of the hour'

Lauding the government's initiative of unveiling a National Biotechnology Policy, industry experts said that it was imperative that this policy was implemented in a timebound manner and that the government ensured that it "walked the talk" if the industry had to reap the benefits of the policy.

"Implementation is the key word here if the policy has to succeed," Cyrus Poonawalla, chairman Serum Institute, said in Bangalore during a panel discussion on 'National Biotech Policy-The Way Forward' at the BioSpectrum awards late Friday night 'Walk the Talk' is what the industry expected out of government which had chalked out this policy, said K K Narayanan, president. "Able people should put their money where their mouth is," he said candidly.

Hailing the National Biotechnology Development Strategy as "well thought out document", Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD Biocon, said it was imperative that it was implemented in a time bound manner. Calling for a single window regulatory authority, she said that the system should truly be a single window system without companies having to interface with other layers of authorities.

According to Poonawala, efforts have to be taken to ensure that the funds sanctioned to small entrepreneurs were not bundled along with red tape and bureaucratic hurdles. Lauding some elements of the policy, Narayanan said that it had underlined the importance of the private sector in nation building by taking the initiative of committing to spend 30 percent of DBT's annual funds on private public projects.