It's partnering time in Indian biotechnology industry. Irrespective of the size - no matter whether it is small, mid and large caps - the biotech companies in the country are exploring the chances of entering into partnerships with foreign and multinational companies to expand their global reach and better their business prospects. Several of these companies have already inked partnering deals with noted global players over the past few years.
"Scores of partnership have taken place in the last few years and this has helped the biotech companies to take on higher growth paths," said, Prof. G Padmanabhan, former director of Indian Institute of Science.
Even in the beginning of 2008, the Indian biotech industry witnessed the partnering trend spreading its wings with Biocon, the largest integrated biotechnology enterprise in the country, inking a strategic partnership with the Baltimore-based IATRICa, Inc. to co-develop an exclusive new class of immunoconjugates for targeted immunotherapy of cancers and infectious diseases. Under the pact, Biocon, which has the proven expertise in drug development, biologics manufacturing, and clinical research, would co-develop candidate products based upon IATRICa's technology platform.
Besides, early this year, Biocon also announced a 70 per cent stake in German pharmaceutical company AxiCorp GmbH for a consideration of Euro 30 million. The acquisition will enable the company to market and distribute a range of pharmaceuticals, including generics, biosimilars, biologics and innovative pharmaceutical products in Germany and Europe.
Earlier in 2007, Biocon had entered into a memorandum of understanding with Deakin University, Victoria to set up Deakin Research Institute in Bangalore and to jointly develop a mammalian cell bioprocessing facility at Geelong, Victoria, Australia. Deakin through its metabolic research unit would also undertake research in the areas of metabolic diseases on behalf of Biocon.
On its part, Avesthagen entered into partnership agreement with the US-based Affymetrix Inc. to speed up the genetic study of Parsee community in India. In this connection, Affymetrix' micro array technology will be used for the Avestagenome project, a comprehensive genetic study of more than 60,000 Parsee community. The project will explore the genetic basis of longevity and create a genetic, genealogic and medical database of the Parsee -Zoroastrian population.
In another move, Jubilant Organosys Ltd. and Draxis Health Inc. have entered into an arrangement agreement to acquire all the outstanding common shares of the latter at a price of US $6.00 per share in cash. The total value of this transaction is approximately US $255 million.
To add to this trend, GE Healthcare completed the acquisition of VersaMed Corporation, a provider of portable critical care ventilators for respiratory care. VersaMed's innovative product offering will expand GE Healthcare's capabilities in respiratory care management, offering healthcare professionals a wide choice of advanced life support ventilators to meet a variety of patient needs and care settings.
The year 2006 also saw several partnerships in the Indian biotech sector. While Reliance Life Sciences acquired a 74 per cent stake in the UK-based GenMedix, Nicholas Piramal acquired Avecia, a UK-based biotech company, to strengthen its innovation and contract research base. Besides, Advinus, a Tata-backed life sciences company, announced a $150 million drug discovery deal with Merck, while, Merieux Alliance, a biotech major in France picked up a 60 per cent stake in Shantha Biotechnics, which propelled Shantha's vaccine developments efforts to the global arena.
Referring to the partnership trend that is ruling the biotech industry in the country and the importance of Bangalore Bio in boosting this trend, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, head, vision group on biotechnology, Government of Karnataka and chairman and managing director, Biocon Ltd., said, "Global bio partnering, which is the theme of the Bangalore Bio 2008, will lead companies from a platform of sustainability to profitability. The promising opportunities for global companies to partner with India are in the areas of clinical development, contract research, contract manufacture, development of bio-pharmaceutical technologies and processes for chronic diseases and bio-informatics."
"The Bangalore Bio trade show has shown compound growth of over 100 percent in the last three years and 150 percent in delegate participation. International participation has shown growth of 200 percent in the last 3 years. The interactions ensued at the biotech mega event have resulted in promising opportunities for global partnerships for companies not only in Karnataka but across the country," she added.
Apart from partnerships to expand their reach, India also has to concentrate on important areas like bio-generics or bio-similars, as a number of biological drugs are slated to go off patent in the coming years. India's competitive edge derives from strong bio-manufacturing skills coupled with a regulatory framework in place for approving generic versions of biologicals like Insulin, GCSF, Hep B vaccine, Streptokinase etc.
The recent guidelines released for select biosimilars by EMEA and the likelihood of US FDA doing the same will see several Indian companies positioning themselves to be global players in this segment.
"The Indian biotech sector has certainly gathered momentum over the last two decades and has finally arrived on the global scene. The sector has crossed many hurdles in reaching this point. The challenges ahead are enormous in terms of building specialised human capital, creating internationally benchmarked regulatory and intellectual property infrastructure and the timely implementation of the national biotechnology strategy," Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw pointed out.
"The success will lie in India bringing to world markets novel and proprietary biotech products which will largely depend on bridging the gaps that exist in discovery and preclinical development. Possibly, the largest gap that needs to be bridged is one that involves the innovation interface between academia and industry. Without this, there is a danger of knowledge being restricted and not shared which in turn will be detrimental to the innovation-led mindset in the country," she added.