New Delhi July 6, 2010 - The Life Sciences industry in Asia clocked a growth of 3.4% to record revenues of $110.89 billion in calendar year 2009, according to a survey by BioSpectrum Asia, the journal for life sciences industry in the Asia Pacific region, with nearly half the revenues--$54.24 billion--coming from the listed companies. The publicly listed companies grew at 24.03%.

BioSpectrum Asia estimates the growth of Life Sciences, covering pharma, biotech and medtech segments, in 2010 to surpass that of 2009, even though the range is likely remain the same: 3-5%, as the economic climate begins to change for the better.

The combined revenues of Indian life sciences companies was $21 billion taking India to the number two spot behind China. India accounted for 19% of the total revenues in Asia Pacific. South Korea, Australia and Singapore followed India in terms of revenue.

This figure includes total revenues from sales, licensing, and service income of the companies in the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan. General healthcare and equipment providers are excluded from this survey. Executed over a period of two months starting in April-May 2010 the third BioSpectrum Asia survey was limited to publicly listed companies in the life sciences industry in the Asia Pacific region. A sample survey of private companies has been factored into the survey numbers.

Growth of Life Sciences industry by Region
(covers Publicly Listed Companies)

With revenues of US$ 22 billion Chinese publicly listed companies grew the fastest at 51.82%, followed by Taiwan. With revenues of US$ 2 billion, Taiwan posted a robust 46.29% growth. Indian publicly listed with revenues of US$ 14.59 billion grew the slowest, at 1.42%.

Seven Indian companies were in the Asia’s Top 20 Publicly Listed Life Science Companies, which accounted for 82% of the overall revenues of publicly listed companies. These include Cipla, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Cadila Healthcare, Lupin, Aurobindo Pharma and Sun Pharma.

Revenues of Top Indian Life Sciences firms: 2009
Revenue in $ million

The strong growth registered by the Indian economy helped drive its life sciences industry. India’s expanding middle class, with growing affordability and greater access to healthcare were the main drivers for the current growth of the industry and economy.

Cipla became India’s No. 1 company, clocking revenues of $1.17 billion. It also became the one of the two Indian companies in the billion-dollar club. Last year, Ranbaxy held India’s Top slot. The India Top 20 Life Sciences list comprises pharma companies with the lone exception of a biopharma—Biocon, at Rank 16.

In generics, the highly-competitive market in India continues to be dominated by Indian pharmaceutical companies, but remains fragmented. Medical devices and supplies market in India is expected to touch $1.7 billion in 2010, growing at the rate of 23% annually.

According to industry estimates, imports of medical devices constitute over 50% of the market. Most imported products have high gross margins. Currently, the high value imported products include cancer diagnostics, medical imaging, ultrasonic scanning, plastic surgery equipment and polymerase chain reaction technologies. However, the market is becoming increasingly competitive due to low entry barriers (for MNCs), an increasing number of players and an expanding consumer base.

Industry Market Share by Region
China had the largest share of the pie at 32% while China and India together accounted for more than half of the revenue of Asia Pacific life sciences industry

In terms of verticals, Pharma and BioPharma put together were 92% of the publicly listed companies revenue, followed by MedTech at 6% and Biotech makes up the rest.

R&D spend averages at 9.44%
With slight improvement in the economy and business, in 2009, there was a marginal increase in the R&D spend, according to the BioSpectrum Asia survey. There was a slight fall in the spending from companies in India and Malaysia as against an increase from companies in Australia, Taiwan and Singapore. Companies from Taiwan and China successfully raised money by listing on stock exchanges during 2009.

In terms of segments, pharma gets the major share of the R&D spending followed by MedTech and BioPharma.
BioSpectrum Asia Pacific Survey 2010 estimates the market capitalization of the life sciences companies in the region to be $85.46 billion at the close of the calendar year 2009. India with 11 companies leads the tally with over $22 billion in market cap.

This excludes the market capitalization of the companies from Taiwan, Singapore, Korea* and some companies from China as the actual historical data was not available so extrapolation was used to arrive at the overall figure. Compared to last year the overall figure has grown only marginally.

All major markets grew at a healthy double digit, with the exception of India which grew just 1.4%. China and Taiwan were the fastest growing countries at 52% and 46% respectively. Ten of the fastest growing companies this year were in the revenue range of $100-$500 million and 5 of these were from China.

About the Survey
The third edition of BioSpectrum Asia Pacific Survey 2010 is an effort to give a rounded view of the progress the industry has made. Executed over a period of two months starting in April-May 2010 the survey was limited to publicly listed companies in the life sciences industry in the Asia Pacific region. The journal followed a twin approach of sending the questionnaire and also using the financial data of the publicly listed companies from the annual reports and information published with the stock exchanges. The scope of the survey was limited to publicly listed companies.

The biggest challenge in the entire exercise was arriving at the figures for the calendar year as several companies have different financial reporting system. Further, the data captured was in local currencies and it had to be converted to US Dollar figures. The analysts sieved through the Annual Reports of over 400 companies and finally closed its survey for 333 companies that qualified. The analysts also collected the annual reports, quarterly results, half-yearly results and then arrived at the revenue figures. The data has been captured for the life sciences companies in Asia Pacific region, except Japan.

For all the companies, the revenues for the 12-month period (January to December) for 2007, 2008 and 2009 have been considered for the purpose of ranking and analysis. The exclusions to the calendar year are marked (*). Some industry figures have been arrived at by extrapolation and estimation. A sample survey of private companies has been factored into the survey numbers.

About BioSpectrum 
BioSpectrum Asia offers an integrated B2B media platform for life sciences industry, covering pharma, biotech and medtech segments, in the Asia Pacific region. The journal offers an integrated media platform for the life sciences industry covering online portal, fortnightly digital magazine and monthly print magazine. The BioSpectrum was awarded for Excellence in New Business Models Category at the Asian Publishing Award 2008.

About CyberMedia 
CyberMedia is the largest specialty media house in South Asia. It has leading media brands in the region including Dataquest, PCQuest, Voice&Data, BioSpectrum, BioSpectrum Asia, DARE, Global Services, Living Digital, MIT’s Technology Review and Halsbury’s Law Monthly 

CyberMedia reaches out to a community of over 1.5 million people through publications, websites, events and TV programs. Its brands cover infotech, telecom, biotech, entrepreneurship, outsourcing, consumer electronics, and legal domains.

Its media services include IDC India, the leading ICT market research company in the region; and Content Matrix, USA which provides through its subsidiaries, custom publishing and content management services.
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