Indian Biotech exports up by 47per cent

Bangalore, June 14: The Indian Biotech industry gaining worldwide recognition posted a export revenue of Rs 4,937 crore (USD 1.2 billion) in Fiscal 2007, growing by 47 per cent over the previous year.

The Industry which notched up a total revenue of Rs 8541 crore saw 27 per cent of it being contributed by top three biotech companies--Pune based Serum Institute (Rs 951 crore), Bangalore head quartered Biocon (Rs 823 crore) and the New Delhi based Panacea Biotech (Rs 600 crore). This was revealed by the fifth industry survey conducted by speciality magazine BioSpectrum of the CyberMedia Group along with the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE).

The study revealed that 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, was the largest vaccines maker in India and second largest Pediatric 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 influenza vaccine and other key vaccines like hepatitis B and DTP.

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 five 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 five ranks at No four and five respectively.

Interestingly the Top five Biotech companies come from five different states in the country breaking the myth that Bangalore is the centre of all action in Biotech.

The next five 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 per cent of the companies operate in the biopharma sector, followed by the bioservices (21 per cent), the bioagri (19), bioinformatics (14) and the bioindustrial sector (five).

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

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

UNI