India's biotech industry has a vast potential for bilateral cooperation with US firms for collaborative research, technology trade, licensing and distribution.

The growing importance of the industry was highlighted at a conference in Washington this week organised under the auspices of the The US-India Biotechnology Alliance by the US-India Business Council and the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The event was held in conjunction with the visit of a senior CII biotechnology delegation who attended the Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual convention, Bio2003, at the Washington Convention Center from June 22nd through June 25th. Tata Consultancy Services sponsored the half-day event.

Over the next five years, speakers pointed out, the biotechnology sector is projected to have a global market share of ten per cent.

This conference was designed to define the scope of potential for bilateral cooperation with US firms and to gain a better understanding of what is impeding the achievement of world-class standards in the development of the Indian biotechnology industry.

The conference began with an overview of the biotech industry as it stands today in India. The event was co-chaired by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairperson of the CII National Committee on Biotechnology as well as chairman and managing director of Biocon India Ltd and distinguished professor Ananda Chakrabarty, of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine.