Global health is being transformed by Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw started as a Master Brewer and now heads up Biocon, India’s largest innovation-led biopharmaceutical company. Mazumdar-Shaw talks about what it takes to establish a multi-billion dollar global business that is transforming global healthcare and the part played by intellectual property.
This rejection saw me turn to entrepreneurship and, quite by accident set up a biotech start-up, Biocon, in India, where I leveraged my knowledge of fermentation to produce enzymes and biopharmaceuticals instead of beer. Having attained success in enzymes, I used my knowledge of biotechnology to try and disrupt the healthcare industry by introducing affordable biopharmaceuticals for patients who needed them the most.
From wanting to “green the world” through eco-friendly enzyme technologies, my mission changed to “heal the world” by developing affordable life-saving drugs for patients across the globe. Today, Biocon is India's largest, fully-integrated, innovation-led biopharmaceutical company.
In terms of market share, our capacity to manufacture high-quality, affordable biologics puts us among the top three global biosimilar players for insulin. Biocon is committed to developing affordable therapies for unmet medical needs for chronic non-communicable diseases like diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.
The ability of biologics to target, augment, or modulate specific proteins and antigens makes them more effective than small molecule therapies for a variety of medical conditions. More complex biologics like monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), cytokines, and therapeutic vaccines, are transforming the standard of treatment for cancer, autoimmune disorders, and other chronic diseases.
Unlike small molecule drugs, novel biologics and biosimilars are large, more complex, target-specific, and have stringent production protocols. But if India is to realize its aspiration to build a USD 100 billion bio-economy by 2025, there needs to be greater synchronization of resources, plans, policies, and priorities to create a self-perpetuating virtuous cycle of innovation and business growth.
As one of India’s earliest biologics players, Biocon’s innovation-led strategy has created a rich pipeline of novel and biosimilar assets. This puts us in an exclusive league of global biosimilar players and means we can provide affordable alternative cancer therapy for US patients.
On the novel molecules front, we are pioneering the development, manufacture, and launch of biologics in India. In 2006, Biocon became the first company in India to launch Nimotuzumab (BIOMAb EGFR®), a novel biologic for head and neck cancer patients. Thousands of patients in India are benefitting from these affordable therapies.
By leveraging the power of affordable innovation, we see “blockbuster drugs” as a means of expanding access to a billion patients. Our business model is centered on the global right to healthcare through affordable biopharmaceuticals. The PCT allows innovation-led businesses like Biocon to seek patent protection in more than 150 countries through a single international patent application.
Indeed, every year, the Biocon Academy helps to bridge the gender skills gap in biotech by training significant numbers of life sciences graduates, including women. However, it is true, that relatively few women rise to leadership positions in science, technology, and business because of the gender discrimination that still exists in our society.
Giving up is permanent. ” This has helped me steer Biocon through the uncharted waters of innovation-led biotechnology research at a time when the Indian pharma industry’s focus was on manufacturing and supplying chemically synthesized generic drugs.
I believe with all my heart that the healthcare industry has a humanitarian responsibility to provide affordable access to essential drugs for patients who need them through the power of innovation. We are working to develop affordable blockbuster drugs with a “Made in India” label that can benefit a billion patients around the world.
correspondent by:
Comments
Post a Comment