Call for Proposals: Precision Biotherapeutics – Monoclonal Antibodies for Fostering High Performance Biomanufacturing under BioE3 Policy (India)

Monoclonal antibodies represent a promising avenue as the first line of prophylactic/therapeutic options during outbreaks/pandemics/epidemics and also as complementary approaches where vaccines cannot reach-such as the very young elderly, immune-compromised or individuals with vaccine hesitancy. Advances in personalized medicine are also being driven by monoclonal antibody biotherapeutics, which also holds promise for better biotherapeutics have greatly advanced clinical care, there are still several challenges which needs to be addressed for efficient adoption and accessibility of this high-cost medicines.

Hence, DBT and BIRAC envision developing a biomanufacturing ecosystem that can promote development and manufacturing of novel mAbs and biobetters to:

• Improve patient access to cost-effective and high-quality mAbs.
• Become a significant global hub for technology leadership and biomanufacturing
• Build capacity to address ongoing health needs and respond to emergencies

Categories

• The proposals are invited under two categories:
  • First category i.e. “Discovery and application oriented Integrated Network research” focuses on proof-of-concept development and applied research to validate the feasibility of innovative ideas and technologies (TRL: 3-5).
    • The proposals may be focused on the following:
      • Monoclonal Antibodies for New Therapeutic Targets
      • Antibody Engineering and Optimization
      • Development of mAbs for prevention or treatment of emerging infectious diseases
      • Innovative solutions for large scale production of mAbs
      • Applications of mAbs in diagnostics for disease detection, biomarker identification and
      • rapid testing platforms (e.g., point-of-care diagnostics, antibody-based biosensors).
      • Exploration of advanced format
      • Investigating mechanisms of antibody resistance
  • The second category i.e. “Bridging the gaps for scale-up” focuses on scaling validated technologies from the laboratory to pilot-scale levels or pre-commercial, focusing on efficiency, techno-economic viability and sustainability of Monoclonal Antibody Biomanufacturing (TRL: 5-7)
    • The proposals may be focused on the following:
      • Development of bio-betters for cancer & autoimmune diseases (from early clinical to commercialization)
      • Centres for indigenous manufacturing and scale up of consumables/raw materials

Eligibility Criteria

• Companies established under the Companies Act 2013 and Startups.
• The Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) incorporated under the Limited Liability Partnership Act,2008.
• Academic from various Institutions/Universities/Societies/ Trusts/NGOs/Foundations/ Voluntary Organizations, recognized as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (SIRO).

For more information, visit BIRAC.