Genomics and Pharmaceutical Industry – a vital partnership for treatment and control of diseases.

 Genomics, the study of genes, is considered to be the most transformative technology of the 21st century. Genomics has scientifically proven abilities in the prevention, management and treatment of diseases and has emerged as a useful and effective way to diagnose serious diseases like cancer, ancestry genetic diseases, etc., For example, genome sequencing helps in detecting the cancer in its early stage and helps the clinicians to provide proper oncology treatments for patients.

COVID-19 has positively impacted the genomics market as the researchers have gained a better understanding of the coronavirus because of the innovative genome technologies with senior scientists and researchers confirming that genome sequencing has revealed that the omicron variant shows a lot of mutation in its spike protein, unlike the delta variant.

 Advanced genomics techniques have made the process of sequencing a lot easier and today, a human genome can be sequenced within 24 hours and consumers can purchase a DNA sequence that can reveal their ethnic lineage going back generations.

Valued at USD 20.1 billion in 2020 the global market of the genomics industry was expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.35% from 2021 to 2028. The top global genomics company like Illumina, Genomic Health, Bluebird Bio, CRSPR Therapeutics have helped in expanding the availability, accessibility and quality of genomic-based health services. It is expected that the next few years will reveal more human genomic information which will help in enabling new therapeutic and preventive options to treat human diseases.

Talking about the Indian genomics industry, the India oncology next-generation sequencing (NGS) market size was valued at USD 16.87 million in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.6% from 2021 to 2028. Medgenome, Redcliffe life sciences, Lilac Insights, The Gene Lab are the top Indian gene testing companies which are using properly advanced technologies and are continuously working towards the improvement of patient care and disease management.

 Initiatives taken by the government to build a genomic database for the Indian population and an exponential decline in the costs of genetic sequencing has driven the market growth and according to the professionals, India holds great potential in genomics as the market is continuously rising. The Genome India Project, initiated by the department of Biotechnology in 2020, intended to collect 10,000 samples of Indian citizens to build reference genome. Very recently, the Government of India has identified genomics as a thrust sector and have announced several schemes with participatory funding from the Government. Such initiatives are expected to increase the usage of genomic products, which will drive the growth of the Indian Genomics industry.

 The essential genetic developments and their applications in various areas like bioengineering, synthetic biology, epistasis, intragenomic phenomena etc. have resulted in the massive growth of the genomics market. The participation of the pharmaceutical industry in such research shall result in the development of advanced drugs and medicines and thereby contract manufacture. India is known as the Pharmacy of the World and thus stands in a unique position for contract manufacture. The contract manufacture under license of the Astrazeneca and other vaccines for Covid 19 for both domestic consumption and vital exports including supplies to the WHO, is a case in point with regard to contract pharmaceutical manufacturers in India.