The Indian Biotech industry, comprising 325 firms, has several reasons to celebrate its performance in the just concluded fiscal 2006-07. 

For one the Biotech exports grew 47% to post revenues Rs. 4,937 crore or US$1.2 Bn in export revenue. Secondly, the Top 3 Biotech company slots occupied by three firms of Indian origin, contributed nearly 27% of industry revenue of Rs. 8541 crore. Top 3 industry positions went to – Pune-based Serum Institute (Rs 951 crore), Bangalore-headquartered Biocon (Rs 823 crore) and New Delhi-based Panacea Biotec (Rs 600 crore)--contribute 27 pc of the industry revenue. 

For the second year in running, Serum Institute has improved its lead over No 2 player, Biocon to Rs.128 crore compared to Rs 15 crore last year. The 40-year old Serum Institute, set up by Dr Cyrus S Poonawalla, is the largest vaccines maker in India and second largest Paediatric vaccines maker in the world. Sold in over 150 countries, Serum's vaccine shot is the first for every second child born in the world. The company has capacity to produce 100 million doses of the human influenzae vaccine and other key vaccines like hepatitis B and DTP.

These findings will be released in the 5th industry survey conducted by CyberMedia Group’s specialty BioSpectrum magazine in its forthcoming issue. BioSpectrum and Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) initiated this annual exercise to map the contours of the biotech industry and to identify indomitable winners in 2003.

According to Mr. Pradeep Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director of CyberMedia, publishers of BioSpectrum, “The Biotech industry is now truly global with two-thirds of the revenue coming from exports. The industry has emerged among the stars of the knowledge economy by inventing and launching several breakthrough products.”

During the year, the biotech industry introduced over a dozen new products in addition to scores of new transgenic cotton seeds hitting the market from BioAgri sector. 

Home-grown companies led the biotech revenue sweepstakes and for the first time in five years, the Top 5 companies are all of Indian origin. In an industry dominated by BioPharma companies two BioAgri companies selling Bt cotton seeds Rasi Seeds from Salem (Rs 333 crore) and Hyderabad based Nuziveedu Seeds (Rs 226 crore) have zoomed into the Top 5 ranks at No 4 and 5 respectively. Interestingly the Top 5 Biotech companies come from 5 different states in the country breaking the myth that Bangalore is the centre of all action in Biotech.

The next 5 players, with revenues of over Rs 100 crore, included Venkateshwara Hatcheries, Indian Immunologicals, Shantha Biotechnics. Mahyco and Bharat Serums. 

The Indian biotech industry, consists of five distinct segments--biopharma, bioagriculture, bioinformatics, bioindustrial and bioservices. Nearly 40% of the companies operate in the biopharma sector, followed by the bioservices (21%), the bioagri (19%), bioinformatics (14%) and the bioindustrial sector (5%).

The biopharma segment, accounting for over two-thirds of the industry, reported sales of Rs 5,973 crore, representing a growth of 27%. The bioservices sector registered 53% growth, bioagri sector grew by 55%, the bioinformatics and bioindustrial sectors recorded growth of 21% and 5% respectively.

BioSpectrum magazine has predicted that by 2010 the Indian biotech industry, with nearly 400 firms, would attain a size of US$ 5 billion revenue and 100 biotech (domestic and imported) products in the market. 

Mergers and Acquisitions: defining moments
The year was marked by several global alliances and merger and acquisitions. Merieux Alliance acquired a stake in Shantha Biotechnics. The second largest vaccine producer in India, Panacea Biotec, signed an agreement with Indonesia’s PT Bio Farma, to manufacture and market the measles vaccine. 

Reliance Life Sciences invested Rs. 279 crore in GeneMedix, a UK-based biopharmaceutical company.

Serum Institute, the largest vaccine manufacturer in India, picked up a 14% stake in Lipoxen, the UK-based a biopharmaceutical firm focused on developing biologicals, vaccines and oncology drugs. The firm also signed up with Akorn of the US for development and distribution of rabies monoclonal antibody. 

Biocon's Syngene joined hand with Bristol-Myers Squibb to provide R&D services for discovery and early drug development. Wockhardt signed up with Advanced Biotechnologies of USA to market Kelocote, a patent protected product to treat scars. 

Nicholas Piramal and Eli Lilly signed a drug development agreement to develop and enhance productivity in drug development.

GSK tied up with TCS, for data management for GSK’s worldwide clinical trial data. 

About CyberMedia
CyberMedia is South Asia's first and largest specialty media house, with thirteen publications (including BioSpectrum, Dataquest, PCQuest, Voice&Data and Global Services) in the infotech, telecom, consumer electronics and biotech areas, and is a media value chain including Internet (www.ciol.com), events and television. The group's media services include market research (IDC India), job board (CyberMedia Dice), content management, multimedia, and media education. 

For more information, please contact:
At Strategic Communications and PR
Sanjiv Kataria
+ 91 98100 48095
Sanjiv.kataria@gmail.com  

At CyberMedia:  
Ch.Srinivas Rao, 
Executive Editor, 
BioSpectrum 
+ 91 80 2286 1511, +91 98455 80279 
srinivasch@cybermedia.co.in 
or www.cybermedia.co.in 
or http://www.biospectrumindia.com and http://www.biospectrumasia.com