(a) whether attention of the Government has been drawn to the statement of Sir Richard Sykes reported in `Indian Express` dated January 9, 2002, that biotechnology can help in developing cost effective and safe medicines;
(b) if so, the present stage of research being made in this regard in India; and
(c) the details of further plans in this regard ?
MINISTER OF STATE FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (SHRI BACHI SINGH RAWAT)
(a) : Yes Sir; the Government is aware of the statement made by Sir Richard Sykes, which appeared in the
Indian Express dated January 9, 2002. The Department of Biotechnology has initiated several programmes to
combat important human diseases.
(b) & (c) : The major thrust of the Health Biotechnology has been to develop cost effective diagnostics,
generate genetic technologies for vaccines for prophylactic and therapeutic use, design novel drug delivery
systems and understand disease processes and immune responses at molecular levels. Programmes relating to
pharmacogenomics, bicomputing, microbial and structural genomics, proteomics, Single Nucleotide
Polymorphisms(SNPs) and their association with diseases like hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes,
neurological disorders and cancers have been initiated. Stem Cell Biology research and application have
also received major fillip.
A good number of diagnostic assay systems have been developed, validated and transferred to the industries.
Some have been launched in the market. An immuno-modulator developed as an adjunct to multidrug therapy
for leprosy, that reduces the treatment duration and cures the disease, is available for use. Efforts are
being made to make available DNA vaccine to control rabies in dogs, in the market. Sixteen genetic clinics
and counseling units are functional and have provided services to 16,5000 affected families.
Development of new candidate vaccines for six important diseases like Cholera, Rabies, Tuberculosis,
HIV/AIDS, Japanese encephalitis and Malaria under National Jai Vigyan S&T mission are either in preclinical
or Phase-I/Phase-II human volunteer trials.
Autonomous institutes/Centres of the Department of Biotechnology are vigorously pursuing basic research on
disease manifestation, prevention and control at molecular levels.
While continuing the ongoing efforts, major emphasis in future would be to utilize the information
available on the human genome and microbial genome sequence data to identify new targets for drugs and
better predictive molecular medicine.