AIC-CCMB, Hyderabad: Sandbox for the Next Unicorn in Healthcare

Dr. Madhu, AIC-CCMB is unique in terms of its position in the start-up ecosystem as an incubator promoted by a CSIR. What was the motivation to create this centre?

CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Research (CCMB) is a national research institute with a rich history of research in basic science and a strong foothold in academia. The need of the hour is to focus on translational research and technology transfer, and CSIR-CCMB understands this need. Back in 2014, CCMB made a concentrated effort to provide research facilities to MSMEs for R&D. The facility was created with the support of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) as a Common Research and Technology Development Hubs (CRTDH). Technical support, infrastructure and sophisticated analytical services are critical in the pursuit of lifesciences and healthcare innovations, so we decided to extend our support to startup as well. This we achieved through the establishment of AIC-CCMB, with the support of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), one of the first 10 Atal Incubation Centre (AICs) in India.

How has the journey been so far?

The past few years have been an incredible journey of growth and becoming of the top bioincubators in India. We have grown in terms of our team and space as well as national entrepreneurship program. We have incubated over 70 startup to date, who have filed some 29 patents based on their work here. We have been actively investing in the startup with a kitty of over Rs. 5 crores raised through National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Start-Up India Seed Fund (SISF) as well as CSR funding from Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL.) and BLAIZE, as well as Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (RECL) for a biodiversity and wildlife conservation lab in Kashmir. We expanded our network with strategic partnerships with industries, international and public agencies and academic institutions. Despite all these laurels, I would say that the journey has just begun and hopefully, we will continue to create a meaningful impact on Atmanirbhar Bharat.

As an incubator focused on healthcare, what was your experience with the COVID mitigation effort?

A number of our startup developed ICMRapproved indigenous diagnostic technologies, and we facilitated the validation of more than 30 COVID-19 kits. Being a part of the South India Consortium for Diagnostics Components and Covid-19 RT-PCR Kit Development, we are providing quality validations to Indian manufacturers of RT-PCR kits and its components like Enzymes, NTPs, Primers and Probes. Support from Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), an initiative of Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Indigenization of Diagnostics (InDx) program of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (cCAMP), supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, we critical for this effort. Currently, we are conducting the 3rd cycle of our Covid-19 Technology Development (CoviTED) Accelerator, a CSR initiative of SPMCIL and also part of AMRIT Grand Challenge (JANCAE) of IKP knowledge Park.

A few years ago, you conducted a seminar aptly named “Pride and Prejudice”, attended by numerous policymakers, academicians and aspiring entrepreneurs. Post the pandemic, do you think that investors are still shying away from life science startup and incubators?

Startup would eventually become business entities. Startup in life sciences are considered to be high-risk-high gain enterprises. Partly, this perception is due to the long waiting period for

In a conversation with Biospectrum, with Dr. Madhusudana Rao, CEO of AIC-CCMB and Dr. Ramjee Pallela, COO of AIC-CCMB, shared their journey and their vision for the future of healthcare innovations.

ROI by investors in these ventures compared to something similar in manufacturing or servicebased startup. Pandemic has demonstrated the national imperatives of access and self-reliance in health technologies. The fresh awareness has given a substantial thrust by investors to startup in life sciences. Still, the quantum of investments is smaller compared to other technology startup such as EdTech or FinTech. For India to be technologically modern and self-reliant more trust is required by the investors in technologies based on deep science. The human resources are excellent in India and with the positive outlook of the government on startup, the trust would lead to a lot of successes.

AIC-CCMB completes five years of operations this June. Based on this experience, what is your vision for the next five years, for both the incubator and the industry as a whole?

The mentorship and financial support by AIM is critical to our journey. The host institute CSIR-CCMB gives us an identity and guides future plans, which are primarily based on deep science. Proactive scouting and curating the leads in various institutes and providing mentorship and startup grants to demonstrate the value of their invention followed by pitching to investors. We want AIC-CCMB to be the hub for all stakeholders in the life science industry, by managing India-centric health funds. One of our focuses is on translating the strength of CCMB in genomics for better health outcomes.

Dr. Ramjee, given your vast experience in life sciences innovation, what do you think sets AICCCMB apart from its peers?

Innovators visiting AIC-CCMB will understand our emphasis on enabling early-stage startup become sustainable business of tomorrow. This we do by providing customizable lab space starting from 100 sft. with fully functional industry standard equipment, supportive facilities for research, workstations, meeting pods besides amenities like cafeterias, conference rooms, animal house facilities, library, guest house etc. from the host organisation. We have pre-incubation and virtual incubation programs for ideation stage startup/ innovators. Truly, AIC-CCMB functions like a sandbox, where a startup can validate their technologies through us or CSIR-CCMB. They can leverage our high impact ecosystem of policy makers, technical and business mentors, alumni, fund providers, regulatory and IP experts & consultants. We facilitate affiliations with reputed labs, research institutes &, industries and local Government. Immersion is key to identifying markets, so AIC-CCMB conducts two national programs called BIRAC’s SPARSH Fellowship program and TIDE 2.0 program by MeitY Startup Hub (MSH). So far, we have identified, and fostered 13 innovators in social entrepreneurship as well ICT in healthcare. Our another initiative with Humane Society International India, the Center for Predictive Human Model Systems (CPHMS), is India’s first scientific and policy think-tank dedicated to enabling human relevant, non-animal technologies in clinical and biomedical research in India.