India's biotech leaders criticize lack of R&D support

The budget plans newly outlined by India's finance minister has drawn some harsh criticism form the biotech industry's top leaders. "Even baby diapers got more attention from the FM," Bharat Biotech's Dr. Krishna Ella tells The Times of India. "Biotech did not even elicit a mention, which is surprising given that government has declared this as the decade of innovation." Concluded Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw: "This is a budget with minimum focus on reforms. FM has tried to gain the confidence of the stock markets but has done nothing to give impetus to research and development. I was expecting pro-manufacturing, pro-export and pro-FDI policies." Story