The tenth edition of BioAsia-2013 is all set to boost the future growth prospects of India’s biopharma and biosimilars markets across the globe. With the country already having made a major foothold in generics segment, biopharma and biosimilars are the next big areas of global exploration. Events like BioAsia are apt platforms for building strong global relations that are essential for future growth.
Having started a decade ago, today BioAsia-2013, the tenth annual conference of biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms, has evolved into a major platform not only for the firms from Asian region but firms from across the global to have their presences to discuss and deliberate on various issues relating to pharmaceuticals and biotechnology in particular.
BioAsia-2013 is being organized from January 28 to 30 at Hyderabad International Convention Centre in Andhra Pradesh. The two - day mega event is set to give an added impetus to the growth of the biotechnology industry. It is an apt platform for companies to exhibit, launch and showcase their unique strengths, products and services.
BioAsia plays the role of a key catalyst in mobilizing all elements that are required to drive the growth of the emerging biotechnology industry as well as optimize its immense business potential.
Taking forward the momentum set by the last year's theme of "Optimizing Opportunities", the tenth edition is focusing on the theme ‘Technologies Business Next,’ aimed at exploring the bio-future. This forum of lifesciences is expected to deliberate on future growth prospects of Indian biopharmaceuticals segment.
According to information from organizers, the first time this year BioAsia is expected to witness participation of top officials from biopharma, biotech and health regulatory agencies from across the globe. Regulatory officials from South Africa, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Jordan, republic of Lithuania, Ghana, London, Sweden and India will be participating in the event.
“Apart from offering big global platform for all stake holders of biotechnology industry BioAsia is also evolving as an influential industry shaper as it is also drawing the attention of the regulatory community. Participation of regulatory authorities is important as they are important in shaping the future course of this ever growing dynamic industry.” says Shakthi Nagappan, CEO BioAsia.
The participating regulators will provide a broader perspective of understanding on the existing regulations pursued in their respective markets and across the globe leading to an in-depth understanding on the existing regulatory frameworks and requirements. This knowledge thereby will benefit the Indian companies interested in expanding their business operations and establishing footprints in these regions through exports, joint ventures, marketing, R&D etc.
As biosimilars is also an emerging trend globally, India is expected to exploit maximum from this forum by building partnerships and Memorandum of Understandings with leading players.
Though India has already made a global mark in the bulk drug and formulation segments, it has yet to make similar growth strides in the vaccines and biosimilars. Despite having a strong presence in the generic drugs sector across the globe, India is yet to grow as a hub of biosimilars, where as other Asian countries like China and South Korea have already established a lead in this segment.
However, with abundant resources and talent pool, India holds a great potential to take a lead in this segment also. As the healthcare needs of the people are growing every passing day and awareness levels about preventive care are improving, the demand for vaccines is also increasing.
Today with advancements in every segment, the need to discuss next generation technology and business models cannot be ignored. Hence forums like BioAsia are apt platforms for building up global business networks and sharing knowledge about innovations and new discoveries.
The advancements in biologics are not just rapidly realigning perceptions regarding medical concepts but also opening up huge opportunities in the area of bio-pharmaceutical drugs.
On the one hand, there is a clear advantage that bio-pharmaceutical drugs can address otherwise unmanageable clinical needs by conventional therapeutics and therefore worth a premium. On the other there is an undeniable connection between investments in nano technologies and the hunt for new molecules which plays a pivotal for the future of biologics and subsequently to the lifesciences industry itself.
Today the annual global sales of biologics has leap-frogged from $ 30 billion from 1999 to $ 139 billion in the year 2010. This is a testimony to the huge investment opportunities this sector offers.
The current forecasts suggest that the share of biologics in the global bio-pharmaceuticals market is projected to rise to 28.9 per cent in 2015, from a base of 4.5 per cent in 1990. In the coming decade, biologics will dominate the global bio-pharmaceutical drugs market, since eight of the top 10 bloc-busters of 2014-15 are to be biologics or biotechnological products.
In terms of spending, the share of biologics in the global pharmaceutical market is projected to rise to 17 per cent in 2016 from 14 per cent in 2006 owing to important clinical advances emerging from research and the increasing patients around the world who are being treated through biologics.
At the same time biosimilars is also rapidly growing parallel to biologics. This is fuelled by the expiry of patents due on at least 48 biologics with a combined global market size of nearly $ 73 billion across the globe over the next decade.
There is an increasing demand for low-cost medicines from healthcare players around the world as they struggle to contain soaring healthcare costs.
Thus opportunities in the vaccines and biosimilars are huge. In the year 2011 the global spending on biosimilars was $ 693 million. This is estimated to increase to $ 4-6 billion or two per cent of biologic spending by the end of year 2016.
At present there are round 410 odd biosimilars that are in development or close to securing regulatory approval and mainly in the class of monoclonal antibodies, insulin and CSF drugs.
From the Indian perspective, the growth prospects are very high in the biologics and biosimilars segments. The main encouraging factors for the Indian biopharmaceutical industry are lower R&D costs, strategic plans for clinical trials, future commercialization with companies in the US and Europe, a solid foundation in scientific intellectual capital and technical framework ensuring world class quality standards . All these have already given the Indian pharmaceutical companies a head start over their global counterparts. Indian biologics market accounts for 62 per cent of $ 3 billion revenue by the biotechnology industry as a whole.
In 2012, the Indian biopharmaceuticals market was worth nearly $ 2 billion and is showing significant growth. In India, about 20 companies are developing biosimilars. Approximately 50 products are available in the domestic market. Several Indian companies are in the process of developing a large portfolio of biologics & biosimilars.
Today India has already received global acclaim for its low cost and quality medicinal products. India is the largest supplier of various kinds of vaccines for World Health Organization (WHO). India has the maximum number of USFDA approved plants outside USA that proves evidently the high quality standards of Indian manufacturers.
According to industry experts, India is expected to grab at least 20-25 per cent of global market share in biosimilars in the next five years. With its highly established infrastructure, talent pool and high level quality compliance the country is all set to become next hub for biosimilars beating China and Korea in the next few years.
At present China and India are leading as the major biosimilars providers from Asia. Though India is having a strong presence in the generic drug sector across the globe the country is still lagging a biosimilars hub.
“There is abundant potential for India to excel in the biosimilars segment. India has all the resources and talent pool to become the major biosimilars manufacture in the world. In the next five years, India is expected to grab 20-25 per cent of global biosimilars market and may rank third or fourth place in the world in the biosimilars segment,” says Dr. P.V. Appaji, the director general of Pharmexcil.
At present the global markets for biosimilars is set at $580 million and is expected to grow to $10 billion by the year 2015.
At present India’s global market share in biosimilars is low. The country accounts only about 2-3 per cent of the global biosimilars market. The reason for this low share is lack of investment and low funding in the R&D segment. Many firms are now slowly realizing the importance and the potential the biosimilars markets holds and are coming out to invest in selective segments to gain maximum benefits.
There are four key areas for the Indian players to have considerable growth opportunities in the biosimilars segment. These include products space, services space, technology and applications. The product segment for biosimilars covers, peptides, recombinant glycosylated proteins, recombinant non-glycosylated proteins and others. In service segment, the firms can look to gain in the areas of drug development, contract research and manufacturing services, clinical trials services. And in technology space one can look for recombinant DNA technology, monoclonal antibodies technologies, protein sequencing, bioassay, chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry.
For the Indian firms to gain a big share in the global biosimilars arena they need to invest heavily in creating alliances and discoveries.
In view of this, the BioAsia-2013 is also expected to give a big boost for Indian players to build partnerships and sign MoUs with the global players. With more than 250 firms from across the globe set to gather, the event is all set to boost the future growth prospects of biosimilars market in India.