Secretary, Department of Health Research V M Katoch and M K Bhan Secretary, Department of Biotechnology signed the agreement here, a government statement said today.
Both of them expressed confidence that through this collaborative effort, a system would be developed for rapid delivery of useful health technologies and products to the people.
Several broad areas such as policy perspective, including economic analysis, and forecasting for affordable technologies for potential use in public health programs have been identified under the agreement.
According to the statement, a joint working group will come into effect that would steer the programs for biomedical research in product development, process optimisation and scale-up including evaluating the products for commercialisation.
Bhan said both sides would work together on transformative, interdisciplinary mega-projects and find out ways for speedy delivery of products at affordable cost to benefit the people.
According to the statement, Katoch consented to constitute a small group of eminent scientific experts to strategise and oversee the projects/programs and conducting scientific audit to review the performance and progress of the collaborative projects.
These projects would be strategic in nature keeping in view the national priorities.