Biocon Cheif grants Rs 5 crores to Ignite Life Science for research projects on pandemic preparedness

Bangalore: In support of research projects on "Pandemic Preparedness," Biocon founder and Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has announced a contribution of INR five crores to Ignite Life Science with the goal of building competencies that will enable India to mount a quick and effective response to future pandemics.

Ignite Life Science Foundation, a donor-funded organization dedicated to funding promising life science research, announced receipt of an initial donation from Dr Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

Dr Kiran Mazumdar Shaw's contribution will be part of the initial pool of funding for the research projects on "Pandemic Preparedness". These projects support national efforts in preparing for and responding to future pandemics. A key goal will be to build competencies that will enable India to mount a quick and effective response to future pandemics.

Commenting on her donation, Shaw said, "I have always committed a large part of my philanthropy to backing biomedical research. I am pleased to support Ignite Life Science Foundation in its endeavour to catalyse promising work by Indian researchers, that will enable their contributions to become an integral part of the global ecosystem of innovative and advanced healthcare solutions."

Nobel Laureate Dr Venki Ramakrishnan (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK) reacted to the announcement by saying - "No country can prosper in the 21st century without being a technologically advanced, knowledge-based society. This requires substantial investment in science and innovation, an area in which India lags not only the West but also Asian countries like China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. Most advanced countries have significant private investment in science, which is lacking in India. The Ignite Life Science Foundation thus has a crucial role to play in catalysing change, and the substantial initial donation by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw will hopefully set an example for other donors."

Swami Subramaniam, CEO, Ignite Life Science said – "I welcome Dr Kiran Mazumdar Shaw's contribution and, on behalf of the Board at Ignite, I wish to express our profound gratitude for her generosity towards this cause. Her contribution will help Ignite get started in a meaningful way towards generating proof of principle for our long-term mission, which is to help create and sustain a robust environment that promotes world-class scientific research and productivity here in India. We hope our work will bring conversations about science into mainstream and help grow philanthropic funding for scientific research to solve challenging health problems facing the country.

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