Andhra govt sets up Rs 150 crore biotech fund

The government of Andhra Pradesh has set up a first-of-its-kind venture capital fund focused on the biotechnology industry with a corpus of Rs 150 crore.

Speaking on the second day of the three-day BioAsia-2005, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said, "The APIDC Venture Capital Biotech Fund aims at developing the biotechnology sector in the state and to help companies set up operations here."

"The biotech fund has already invested Rs 2.48 crore each in Bioserve Technologies, Genomik Design Pharma and Silico Insights," he said. Further, the APIDC Venture Capital Fund has so far invested Rs 8.1 crore in three biotech companies, he added.

Reddy also said that the state government intends to support the Union government's initiative on a Bio IT Park and has already earmarked 100 acres of land adjacent to the SP Biotech Park and the ICICI Knowledge Park.

"An International Life Science Institute is also expected to come up in the Genome Valley as a centre of excellence. The institute will provide training and research facilities in specialised areas of pharmaceutical sciences and in the drug discovery sector ," Reddy said.

The chief minister said that the work on the Rs 25-crore incubation centre is going on at a brisk pace and is expected to be ready by the end of the year.

"Once the incubator is ready, it will foster the growth of start-up companies by providing specialised facilities for technical and business needs which are on par with international standards," he said.