Hyderabad: In a major boost to India’s Bio E 3 (biotechnology, environment, economy and employment), Germany-based GLATT and Hyderabad’s PreferCo on Thursday, February 19, announced the launch of a Centre of Excellence for the Bioprocess Scale-Up at the Genome Valley in the city.
The initiative aims to strengthen India’s bioprocessing infrastructure at a critical inflection point as the country seeks to translate innovation into globally competitive biomanufacturing results.
The CoE has been set up to accelerate microbial precision fermentation from lab to pilot and pre-commercial manufacturing.
It has been designed to resolve the persistent challenges to India’s bioprocessing ecosystem: access to reliable, globally benchmarked scale-up infrastructure for innovators across industry, academia, and start-ups, the two firms said.
The CoE will support scale-up to 1,500-litre bioreactor capacity and will integrate automation, advanced instrumentation, and artificial intelligence-enabled process intelligence to improve reproducibility, deepen process understanding, and reduce technical risk during scale-up.
“The digital-first architecture is aimed at speeding up decision-making and shortening timelines from proof of concept to commercial readiness,” PreferCo and GLATT said in a statement.
Apart biopharmaceuticals, the platform will also support industrial biotechnology applications, including personal care, wellness and longevity, sustainable materials, functional foods, and bio-based chemicals.
Glatt Systems Pvt Ltd MD Rajiv Bhide said, “India’s bioeconomy grew from $10 billion in 2014 to $ 166 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $300 billion by 2030, stressing the need for scaling-up infrastructure in line with the govt’s BioE3 vision.”
India’s Bio E 3 programme
India’s Bio E 3 initiative focuses in biomanufacturing and aims to develop a framework that ensures the adoption of cutting-edge advanced technologies, and aligning innovative research for promoting Biomanufacturing.
The BioE3 Policy provides guidelines and principles for enabling mechanisms for ‘Fostering High Performance Biomanufacturing’ in the country across diverse sectors. The policy aims at changing the biomanufacturing process for enhanced efficiency, sustainability, and quality while accelerating the development and production of bio-based high-value products.
