Indian Bio Tech exports up by 47 per cent to touch US $ 1.2 Billion

Bangalore, June 14 (UNI) The Indian Biotech industry gaining worldwide recognition has 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 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''.

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