DBT-BIRAC unveils high performance biomanufacturing platforms

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, and the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) have announced the launch of India’s first Biofoundry Network, a landmark initiative aimed at transforming the country’s biotechnology landscape and achieving a $300 billion bioeconomy by 2030.

Rolled out under the BioE3 Policy (Biotechnology for Environment, Economy & Employment), the network will serve as a national platform to accelerate advanced biomanufacturing.

The initiative brings together 21 cutting-edge bio-enabler facilities across India, offering shared infrastructure to start-ups, SMEs, industries, and academic institutions. These centers will support pilot and pre-commercial scale technologies across diverse sectors, including microbial biomanufacturing, sustainable agriculture, smart proteins, functional foods, precision biotherapeutics, marine biotechnology, carbon capture, and next-generation cell and gene therapies.

Following are the Bio-foundries and Biomanufacturing hubs to be established by industries, incubators and academia-industry collaborations-

• Foundation for Science Innovation and Development (FSID), Bengaluru (with Tata Chemicals Limited ) is establishing pilot scale facility (100 L) to scale up specialty chemicals and enzymes
• Immunoadoptive Cell Therapy Private Limited, Mumbai is setting up GMP grade facility for gene delivery vector
• Hi Tech Biosciences India Ltd, Pune is setting up fermentation facility (10 KL) to produce drug intermediates
• Embio Ltd, Mumbai is coming up with pilot scale and large scale fermenters
• Laurus Bio, Visakhapatnam is establishing fermentation facility for functional foods
• Virchow Biotech Private Limited, Hyderabad is setting up state of the art facility for commercial production of mAbs and enzymes
• Agilent Bioplus LLP is setting up a plant to scale up the production of gluconates
• Revelations Biotech Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad is setting up QMS compliant facility for commercial production of Fructo-oligo saccharides
• HiMedia Laboratories, Mumbai is planning a fermentation facility at 1 KL scale for food based products
• Sundyota Numandis Probioceuticals Private Limited, Ahmedabad is setting up QMS compliant facility for commercial production of probiotics
• IIT-Madras (with TICEL Bio Park Ltd, Chennai) is setting up Facility to support development and scale up of products used in pharma & cosmetics
• Jindal Steel, Angul is setting up facility for sequestration of CO2
• KIIT Technology Business Incubator, Bhubaneswar is planning a dedicated facility for marine biotech products.
• Nation’s First Animal Stem Cell repository is going to be set up by National institute of Animal Biotechnology (NIAB), Hyderabad with HiMedia Laboratories, Mumbai.
• Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Limited, Pune is establishing a biomanufacturing hub for mRNA-based precision medicine.  

The facilities range from biofoundries working on microbial strains, smart proteins, probiotics, and bio-based chemicals to biomanufacturing hubs developing next-generation cell therapies, mRNA-based medicines, marine bio-innovations, and sustainable biofuels. Collectively, these will act as bio-enablers of innovation and commercialisation, unlocking new opportunities for industry and academia alike.