The recession in general provides a huge opportunity to focus on the areas that humanity needs most. It provides an opportunity to plan and consolidate better. This is the opinion of Nobel Laureate Richard. J Roberts who won Nobel Prize for medicine in 1993.
Roberts said, “We still know very little about the biology and how mechanisms of life work. So, there is lots to do in the area of personalised medicine.” Personalised medicine works differently. He called on pharma companies to take up specific drugs that matches the phenotype (an observable characteristics of an organism) as this market is huge and the possibility of making profits is high.
Starting as a small firm without taking the help of any investor but still doing focused research to generate revenue is a good approach for start-ups in biotechnology, he added.
Delivering the highlight lecture at the ninth edition of Bangalore Bio, he shared the experience of his own com-pany New England Biolabs, which started as a small research firm in a basement and today is among the lar-gest source for recombin-ant and native enzymes for DNA technology. Robert’s discovery, that we can split genes, revolutionised the thinking and led to therapies with recombinant drugs.
Key thrust areas, according to the Nobel Laureate are — GM foods, bio-energy, stem cell research, synthetic biology and personalised medicine. He lamented at politics and politicians agitating against GM foods. “When a plant breeder introduces hundreds of genes, about which we do not know, to produce hybrids, we accept. But when a scientist works with just one gene, about which he knows fully, politicians oppose it,” he said urging to change this attitude.
Commenting on the pharma industry in general, he said, “They are not really interested in curing the diseases, fearing they lose their future income. Instead, they offer only amelioration, in which case the patient needs to keep on buying medicines.”
Roberts said, “Small is beautiful in the area of bio-energy. A small bio-fuel cell can produce electricity enough to charge a laptop, mobile or a light in a remote Afri-can hut.”
Delivering the second highlight Lecture, V M Kat-och, secretary, Department of Health Research, Government of India, and Director General, Indian Council for Medical Research, said, “Pro-active bureaucracy and committed political will make Bangalore the bio-tech hub of India. He called upon bio-tech companies to work on antiviral drugs and accelerate inventing tools to detect viruses and infections. Though there is lot of research going on in inventing and producing drugs, there is lot to do from the patients perspective to know which drug works better for him.”
