Deepanwita Chattopadhyay is the Chairman and CEO, IKP Information Park, Hyderabad, the primary life science analysis park in India. A pioneer within the {hardware} product incubator and makerspace in India, Deepanwita was additionally the important thing driver behind IKP EDEN- Engineering, Design and Entrepreneurship Community, a makerspace in Bengaluru.
With a wealthy expertise in mentoring startups, Deepanwita works with Indian and world companions to nurture and fund innovation tasks and early startups within the life sciences area.
She started her profession as an engineering school at BITS, Pilani and as freelance science author for youngsters. Later, she joined the telecom advisory observe of ICICI Financial institution in 1994 and suggested the federal government and the personal sector on telecom regulation and coverage, convergence points and market entry methods.
Deepanwita is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Worldwide Affiliation of Science Parks (IASP) with its world headquarters in Malaga, Spain. She is on the Analysis Council of the Centre for Mobile & Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB), Govt Council of AGNIi (Accelerating Progress of New India’s Improvements), and on the governing council of a number of incubators in India.
IKP Information Park, Hyderabad is the primary life science analysis park in India.
Deepanwita spoke to indianexpress.com on the challenges confronted by life sciences startups, the necessity for affected person capital in deeptech analysis, and IKP’s mentoring of life sciences startups amongst different issues. Edited excerpts:
Venkatesh Kannaiah: Are you able to give us an summary of areas of rising innovation globally within the life sciences area, and its social influence.
Deepanwita Chattopadhyay: Improvements in healthcare, agriculture, meals and vitamin, and surroundings are areas of curiosity globally. On one hand there’s the constructing of enormous scale infrastructure of tremendous specialty hospitals by governments and the personal sector, however extra attention-grabbing is the emphasis on distant healthcare, higher entry to well being by means of the usage of a number of digital instruments, and higher diagnostics delivered each in-person and in a distant method.
There are additionally rising improvements within the choice assist techniques for docs, use of synthetic intelligence and machine studying, and use of enormous databases to glean patterns and counsel cures. For instance, there’s a firm Niramai, which innovates on breast cancer screening and makes use of information and AI to display quicker. One other instance is one among our incubated startups, Predible Well being, that makes use of AI for precisely analysing MRI and different radiology photos to assist the physician in his prognosis and remedy of organ-specific most cancers, particularly lung most cancers.
With higher understanding of genetics, genomics and the huge intrinsic variations amongst folks, there’s a shift from the “one measurement matches all” paradigm the place the identical drugs or remedy is used to deal with all folks, to an elevated curiosity in improvements centred round personalised healthcare options. A rising focus is on treating most cancers with personalised cell- and gene-based remedy. As of now these therapies are extraordinarily costly. Many startups in India are actually innovating to convey down the price of these medical interventions considerably.
There are additionally improvements in nutraceuticals and good proteins, with a deal with plant-based proteins for vegetarians. In agriculture, we’re witnessing improvements throughout the worth chain from crop, pest and soil administration to areas like hydroponics and higher water administration methods.
There may be now the idea of ‘Onehealth’ the place we’ve begun to see the well being of people, animals and vegetation as an built-in entire. The influence of local weather change and the motion of pathogens from birds to people and from animals to people are forcing us to rethink well being. This is able to be a paradigm change and I imagine most new improvements can be examined on how a lot it’s taking the ‘onehealth’ thought into consideration and the chance of unintended penalties.
Venkatesh Kannaiah: Inform us about startups incubated/mentored/funded by you which of them you suppose may have a big social influence.
Deepanwita Chattopadhyay: We now have engaged with greater than 1400 startups to this point, and lots of have turn out to be vastly profitable of their social influence and in elevating funds.
Laurus Labs is IKP’s first incubated firm which has reworked itself from an lively pharmaceutical components firm focusing largely on oncology and HIV to an built-in research-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology firm. Their work ranges from generic formulations, customized synthesis, biotechnology, veterinary APIs in addition to investing in improvements in cell and gene remedy. They work with all the highest generic pharma firms on the earth, and have greater than 200 patents of their areas of labor. I contemplate it as one of many main impactful firms at IKP and a profitable mannequin for a lot of to emulate.
GPS Renewables is a waste-to-energy know-how firm that’s pioneering the event of unpolluted and low-cost know-how for waste administration options. Additionally it is India’s main full-stack biofuels agency, providing know-how and mission improvement options for bioCNG, Ethanol and inexperienced hydrogen options. . They’ve additionally commissioned Asia’s largest Bio-CNG plant in Indore, and have additionally constructed an EV charging station in Mumbai based mostly on biogas.
Logy.AI is a small and early-stage firm which makes use of AI and ML in coaching their databases to display for cataract sufferers, and allow this screening to be carried out by means of a smartphone. This is able to facilitate massive scale screening in distant elements of the nation.
Remedio is an organization which has constructed options to deal with diabetic retinopathy and different eye illnesses like glaucoma. That is additionally an answer within the subject of distant monitoring, however right here a proprietary imaging system is used as a substitute of a smartphone digicam. It’s decentralising complete eye testing utilizing AI and telemedicine, with easy ophthalmic gadgets. Even inexperienced volunteers can use these merchandise with minimal coaching.
Dozee is one other firm that has an innovation whereby a sheet with sensors is positioned beneath the mattress which captures the micro-vibrations which can be emitted from the physique by means of heartbeats, respiration cycle, and physique motion. The info is distributed to the safe cloud which converts it into significant bio-markers.
“We now have labored extensively with the Biotechnology Business Analysis Help Council (BIRAC) of the Division of Biotechnology, GoI on grand challenges in varied features of well being,” says Deepanwita.
Venkatesh Kannaiah: Are you able to inform us about your problem grants and attention-grabbing startups which have emerged from these initiatives?
Deepanwita Chattopadhyay: We’re a pioneer in being the programme implementing accomplice in India of the worldwide Grand Problem Explorations of the Invoice & Melinda Gates Basis method again in 2011. We ran the Tuberculosis grand problem in India, with Gates Basis, USAID, BIRAC and FCDO-UK and recognized many inventions.
India is among the many international locations with a really excessive incidence of tuberculosis. Among the many many startups which went by means of our cohort was Everwell Well being which labored within the realm of drug routine compliance by sufferers by creating their digital product known as 99DOTs. We globally have a regular known as Immediately Noticed Remedy (DOT) the place well being employees must manually monitor the sufferers taking within the medicines. Since this poses an enormous problem, many inventions had been constructed across the theme of drug adherence, and 99DOTS was among the many most revolutionary, extensively adopted in India and globally.
We additionally labored on 5 grand challenges with the federal government of Karnataka, one of many themes being industrial waste water the place the startup Greenvironment offered a sublime resolution that was adopted by varied housing complexes and industries.
Proper at first of COVID-19, we arrange a small fund known as the IKP COVID Fund or I-CO Fund to rapidly collect many startups to work on varied options for pandemic management from masks and PPEs to diagnostics and non-invasive ventilators.
We now have labored extensively with the Biotechnology Business Analysis Help Council (BIRAC) of the Division of Biotechnology, GoI on grand challenges in varied features of well being, from infectious illnesses to maternal and little one well being and digital well being. We now have mentored many startups. One in every of them is Janitri Improvements, which works to develop sustainable, reasonably priced vitals monitoring gadgets and software program to observe the journey of being pregnant, and childbirth. It gives a variety of antenatal and childbirth monitoring merchandise.
One other attention-grabbing startup is Parisodhana, which has give you a palm-sized product StayWarm which offers snug heat with none want for energy provide or batteries. These pouches match conveniently in pockets, gloves, or sneakers and supply 6-8 hours of heat. They’re additionally engaged on the world of particulate supplies within the subject of air activated warming platforms. This know-how can present options to varied on the go heating and warming wants of customers. Numerous merchandise are being examined to carry out at very excessive altitudes and chilly climates. These are actually being utilized by Indian troopers within the Siachen space.
Venkatesh Kannaiah: How is the startup ecosystem in your area in India, are startups getting funded, and what are the challenges and alternatives.
Deepanwita Chattopadhyay: You need to perceive that life sciences are an extended gestation, IP pushed space, with deep tech-based analysis merchandise, and which requires affected person capital, with no fast returns. Additionally it is a subject which requires validation of the merchandise and the regulatory processes and practices to be adhered to. It takes a minimal of 5-10 years for the product to achieve the market, and many of the early funding comes from grants and authorities investments.
Nonetheless, the business is maturing now and life sciences focussed funds are rising. Earlier, we had been hardly innovating merchandise within the biopharma sector, and had been principally in course of innovation and generic drug manufacturing with off patent medicine. The pharma and biopharma sector is now transferring up within the innovation spectrum, with work round inexperienced chemistry, biosimilars and biologics.
“India has now the chance to turn out to be the bio-manufacturing hub of the world,” Deepanwita says.
Venkatesh Kannaiah: What are biosimilars and why are they essential to India?
Deepanwita Chattopadhyay: Biosimilars are a organic drug that could be very very like one other organic drug (known as the innovator reference drug) that has already been permitted by the regulator, for instance by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA). Biosimilar medicine and reference medicine are created from residing organisms however they might be made in several methods and of barely totally different substances. Biosimilars may have a optimistic influence on drug pricing and would result in reasonably priced pricing of sure sorts of medicines, which are actually very costly, and that are used to deal with most cancers, kidney illnesses, power arthritis amongst others. That is key as most of the costly biologic medicine being utilized in developed international locations is likely to be dropping their patents, and would possibly result in the manufacturing of comparable medicine, or biosimilars.
The following massive factor for India can be biomanufacturing. We’re thought-about the pharmacy of the world supplying generic pharmaceutical medicines worldwide. India has now the chance to turn out to be the bio-manufacturing hub of the world. It’s not nearly manufacturing biosimilars however the entire gamut of biologics.
Venkatesh Kannaiah: What can be your massive guess for the sector which you suppose might need a big impact if it really works?
Deepanwita Chattopadhyay: It’s an extended haul, however I really feel cell and gene remedy for most cancers and generally immunotherapy is an space the place India can convey the value down a number of orders to make therapies reasonably priced in the long term. A number of firms are working on this area, and I’m proud to say that Laurus Labs is investing on this space that could possibly be a recreation changer in the long term.