The Telangana government aims to double the valuation of life sciences ecosystem in the state to $100 billion in 10 years, state Industry Minister K. T. Rama Rao said on Thursday.

Inaugurating the 15th BioAsia Summit, he said the government would work the industry to leverage existing strength in life science industry to make it an economic growth engine, creating 4 lakh jobs in next 10 years. The life sciences ecosystem in the state is currently valued at $50 billion with the presence of over 800 companies. Rama Rao said Telangana has further strengthened its leadership position in life sciences innovation and manufacturing hubs, by contributing more than 35% to the national pharmaceutical production of the country.

The state is also proud to be recognized as the vaccine hub of India and the world, producing about 33 per cent of global vaccines dosages. World-class infrastructure, cluster approach and availability of manpower continues to attract major global and Indian lifesciences companies to the state, he said. The establishment and development of Genome Valley, Pharma City, Medical Devices Park makes Hyderabad an unique destination providing a complete ecosystem for global lifesciences companies, he claimed.

KTR, as the minister is popularly known, announced that Genome Valley cluster will be expanded. The government will immediately initiate formulation an integrated masterplan for the cluster, which will be mark the beginning of Genome Valley 2.0. The government is also contemplating an incubator focused on vaccine development in Genome Valley as part of the initiative to achieve the target of development of at least one vaccine every year in the state.

Genome Valley is home to more than 200 companies with approximately 10,000 scientific and technical workforces. He said Telanagana was working closely with the Central government to accelerate the establishment of country's largest animal resources facility, which will amplify benefits to the life sciences companies and will accelerate development and significantly reduce the time to market of new drugs.

The government is also keen to establishing an institute focused on emerging areas like immunotherapy, personalized medicine and nanomedicine. Life sciences Infrastructure Fund started last year will start making investments in 2018. "We aim at creating assets in the life sciences sector worth at least Rs. 3000 crores in the next two - three years," he said. The minister said the ambitious Hyderabad pharma City project will be grounded in the next few months. The project is awaiting environmental clearance.

The 15th edition of BioAsia will deliberate on the strategies to take on the rapid pace of change, innovative ways to develop new models for distribution and healthcare delivery and the opportunities exist for the life sciences value chain. More than 1,500 delegates from healthcare, biotech, pharma, lifesciences, IT, academia and Startups representing over 55 countries are attending the three-day event.

At the inaugural ceremony, Genome Valley Excellence Award was presented to Professor Michael N. Hall from Biozentrum University of Basel, Switzerland for his pioneering work in discovering the nutrient-activated TOR (Target of Rapamycin) proteins and their central role in the metabolic control of cell growth.