Indian Biotech to join billion $ club

BANGALORE: The Biotechnology industry in India has registered a healthy growth of 39 percent in revenue over last year to touch $705 million (Rs 3,265) during the year 2003-04. The sector has also witnessed a robust growth in the number of companies starting its biotechnology business operations in the country to 235 this year from 150 last year. 

The market has been sized by industry magazine, BioSpectrum, from the stable of India's largest business publisher — CyberMedia (India) Limited and ABLE (Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises), the Nasscom equivalent for the Biotech industry in India.

This is the second time the industry has been sized and analyzed and has revealed encouraging results of the growing trend of India as a desirable biotech destination. The first BioSpectrum-ABLE Survey in 2003 had estimated the industry size to be Rs 1,840 crore which was later revised to Rs 2,345 crore.

"Biotech is recognized the world over as a technology of the future. The Indian biotechnology industry is gathering momentum. With revenues of over $700 million (Rs 3,265 crore) in 2003-04, the fledgling industry, despite all the hurdles in its path, is on its

BioSpectrum-ABLE Top 20 Biotech Companies

Rank

Company

Biotech Sales 



in crore (Rs)

1

Biocon

502.00

2

Serum Institute of India

491.00

3

Panacea Biotec

149.00

4

Nicholas Piramal

130.00

5

Novo Nordisk

110.00

6

Venkateshwara Hatcheries

88.00

7

Wockhardt

84.00

8

GlaxoSmithKline

80.00

9

Bharat Serums

79.68

10

Eli Lilly and Company

67.40

11

Novozymes

65.00

12

Quintiles Spectral

62.55

13

Krebs Biochemicals

56.88

14

Indian Immunologicals

56.70

15

Zydus Cadila

55.00

16

Mahyco Monsanto

54.00

17

Shantha Biotechnics

40.00

18

Syngene International

38.48

19

Biological E

38.37

20

Span Diagnostics

35.62

Total

2283.68

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way to cross the psychological barrier of $1 billion in the current year. And if the momentum continues, the industry will reach its goal of $5 billion in 2010," emphasized Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, President, ABLE (Association of Biotechnology-Led Enterprises) and CMD, Biocon Ltd.Â

During the year, two leading biotech groups--Serum and Biocon--surpassed the Rs 500 crore mark and accounted for a third of the industry size. While Serum was the largest biotech group with revenues of Rs 555 crore, Biocon was a close second with Rs 549 crore from Biocon Ltd, Syngene International, and Clinigene.

Biocon Ltd held on to its No.1 spot in the BioSpectrum Top 20 ranking for the second consecutive year with biotech revenues of Rs 502 crore. Pune-based Serum Institute of India Ltd, part of the Poonawalla Group, is the largest exporter of vaccines and immuno-biologicals from India and was ranked No.2 with revenues of approximately Rs 491 crore from the sale of biotechnology products in 2003-04.

"For this year's analysis, we considered biopharma products under four broad categories of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and others like statins. Products made from fermentation or animal cell culture (not animal extracts) and plant cell culture (not plant extracts) were taken into account. In the agri sector, transgenic crops, biopesticides and biofertilizers were considered along with biomarkers and agri research services. The other sectors considered included bioinformatics, bioindustrial mainly consisting of enzymes and bioservices mainly falling into the clinical trials and custom research," informed BioSpectrum Chief Editor, E Abraham Mathew.

"Though the overall industry grew by 39 percent. Different sub segments within the sector had different growth rates. The biopharma sector is the largest sector in the country with a total market share close to 76 percent. The sector has been led by strong growth in the statins market and by Biocon. The vaccines business is the largest contributor to the biopharma sector. It accounted for almost 28 percent of the market share. While the exports for the human health vaccine manufacturers nearly remained the same, the animal health care segment grew by about 25-30 percent," added N Suresh, Editor, BioSpectrum.

The manpower in the biotech sector grew by over 42 percent to grow to 9,100. The biotech companies this fiscal would end at about 11,000. And the investments have climbed up by 25.99 percent to Rs 635 crore during the year. In 2004-05 this is forecast to grow by 33.86 percent to Rs 850 crore.