Tuesday, March 22, 2016

India creates fund for enabling research on tests for antibiotic resistance

Contributed by Siddarth David & Dr. Tamhankar



The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) of the Government of India has created a fund of  $1,00,000 to start India focussed research on antibiotic resistance for biotechnology start-ups in India.  The fund will be given through the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) for the start-ups to compete for prestigious Longitude Prize which is £ 10 million prize offered by Nesta, a U.K. charity, to any individual group anywhere in the world that develops an affordable, effective diagnostic test to detect resistance to micro-organisms.

Renu Swarup, Managing Director, BIRAC, said the collaborations were to encourage more biotechnology start-ups in India as well as creating an atmosphere where innovation is encouraged and nurtured. BIRAC is a not-for-profit Public Sector Undertaking, set up by DBT as an interface agency to support emerging biotech enterprises to undertake strategic research and innovation, to address nationally relevant product development needs. BIRAC has supported nearly 300 start-ups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and 170 young entrepreneurs for innovation, research and product development.

Given the critical health challenge posed by antibiotic resistance in India, this is a welcome move to encourage research and develop context-specific solutions.

No comments:

Read The ``TRUE LIFE STORY``of a family infected with MRSA