'Shortage of skilled labour for research'

India is hampered by a severe shortage of people with specialised skills to develop new drugs, and may have to rope in consultants of local origin from overseas, Biocon Chairman and Managing Director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has said.

"The biggest challenge is to get specialised skills and expertise," Majumdar-Shaw said. "In generics we are fine (we don't have a manpower shortage), but to make new products it's very difficult to get personnel. We don't have enough of them."

Biotech institutes have been encouraged to address this issue. There was a suggestion to bring in people of Indian origin from overseas and employ them as consultants and experts to improve the situation, she said.

Otherwise, Majumdar-Shaw said that the Indian biotech sector was doing well, growing at 30-40 per cent annually. It is expected to grow from over $2 billion at present to $5 billion by 2010, she said.

The sector has achieved "critical mass" in certain sectors such as bio-pharmaceuticals.

Currently, India is the world's largest producer of vaccines and may soon become the "bio-manufacturing" country, as well as the "clinical hub" of the world, she said.

Shaw mentioned that the agri-biotech products were facing some problem due to regulatory obstacles and the government needed to do something in that area.