Indian Biotech sector surges to Rs 18,399.34 cr

BANGALORE, INDIA: The Indian Biotech industry gained growth momentum in 2010-11, recording the fastest growth in the last five years, to touch $4 billion or Rs. 18,399.34 crore revenues, according to a survey conducted by BioSpectrum, a unit of CyberMedia group.

The 9th annual BioSpectrum-Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) survey also said that out of the total revenue, the biotech industry contributed Rs 17,249.34 crore while the remaining Rs 1,150 crore came from the life science education market.

The biotech industry, without the life sciences education component, recorded a revenue growth of 21.5 per cent over the 2009-10 revenues of Rs 14,199 crore, with the top 10 South-based companies - led by Biocon - contributing Rs 4816 crore.

The contributions of BioPharma, BioServices, BioAgri, Bioindustrials and Bioinformatics verticals were Rs 10645 Crore, Rs 3245.97 Crore, Rs 2480 Crore, Rs 626 Crore and Rs 252 Crore respectively, the survey said.

The BioPharma vertical contributed almost two-fifth of the industry revenues, followed by BioServices with 18.82 per cent and BioAgri with 14.38 percent. The Bioindustrials and BioInformatics industries made up the rest of the industry revenue.

The fastest growing sector BioAgri has increased its market share in the last five years from less than 5 per cent to over 14 per cent of the 2011 industry revenue. The survey also revealed that with every cotton farmer lapping up every Bt cotton seed produced by the two dozen companies, this sector is on a growth path.

The domestic BioServices market has increased by 3 per cent in 2010-11 over last year’s 5 per cent share in the segment revenue.

BioInformatics companies have increased exports business revenue in 2010-11 to claim 42 per cent segment share with more focus on customers in the US and Europe. Growth of biologics in the domestic market gave an eight per cent boost to the BioPharma segment which clocked about 21 per cent growth in 2010-11.

Cheaper biochemical alternatives dragged down the growth of Bioindustrial segment, which grew at 10.98 per cent in 2010-11, a drop of 7.01 per cent from last year. The Biotech industry derived 51 per cent of the overall revenues from exports with Rs 8,852.34 crore.

Biocon retained the top slot in the overall revenue rankings, with a growth rate of 26 per cent. Of the top 20 companies, Shantha Biotech and Jubilant Life Sciences faced a drop in revenue while Ankur Seeds posted a spectacular growth, nearly doubling its revenues.

Nearly 175 Biotech companies in South India contributed to the 44 per cent of the total revenues in 2010-11, up from 39 per cent in 2009-10. Western Indian states with 139 companies contributed to nearly 43.60 per cent.

In terms of number, the South continued its dominance with 175 companies while the West has 139 companies. North India with 48 companies was the next biggest contributor.

The Bangalore-headquartered Biocon retained its No.1 position with revenues of Rs 1083 crore, followed by Serum Institute of India (Rs 1041 crore) from Pune, New Delhi-based Panacea Biotec (Rs 928.41 crore), Nuziveedu Seeds from Hyderabad (Rs 610 crore), and Reliance Life Sciences (Rs 490 crore) from Mumbai at serial no 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively.

Serum Institute recovered from its previous year’s slump, thanks to the robust sales of the newly- introduced Swine flu vaccine.

Of the top 20 companies, Shantha Biotech and Jubilant Life Sciences faced a drop of 18.62 per cent and 15.76 per cent in revenue, respectively. Shantha Biotech, now a part of Sanofi Pasteur Group, had a few setbacks due to the withdrawal of some products from the market last year.

Ankur Seeds almost tripled its revenues to Rs 325 crore, recording the highest growth among the top 20 companies.

Comparing the growth by region, the South has caught up with the West, improving its share in the overall Indian biotech industry to 44.22 per cent in 2010-11 from 39 per cent in 2009-10. The western region’s share is 43.60 per cent, while the northern cluster contributed just in double digit share.

The eastern region continues to remain insignificant in the overall biotech scheme of things.

Top 10 companies in the South have contributed Rs. 4,816.47 crore (27 per cent) of the total biotechnology industry while top 10 companies from the West have about 21.17 per cent of the total industry, contributing Rs. 3,651.25 crore.