By Brian Bergstein AP Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Now that software development, call centers and other outsourcing ventures have boosted India's status in the world economy, Indian officials hope to pull off the same feat in biotechnology.
Several dozen Indian executives and government officials made that pitch to U.S. investors and scientists in advance of BIO2005, a major industry conference next week in Philadelphia. Their message: India's huge market and low manufacturing costs make it ideal for multinational drug and agriculture companies.
India's biotech industry remains small, generating about $700 million in sales in 2004, mostly in generic drugs such as insulin and hepabreastis B vaccines.
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But at a luncheon Monday at the Indian consulate, Kapil Sibal, India's science minister, said the government plans to invest heavily in biotech, with grants and low-interest loans available for new startups. India also will exempt research and development costs from taxes, he said.
Although genetically modified foods remain controversial among some environmental and consumer groups, Sibal said he hoped transgenic crops would help feed India's huge, largely poor population. As an example, he cited an Indian project to produce a potato with high levels of vitamin A.
"What we need," he told the audience, "is for you to partner with us."
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It might not be so simple. Many companies question India's patent protections. And U.S. regulators insist that most human drug trials, among the costliest part of pharmaceutical research, be conducted in the United States.
