The Indian biotech industry has innumerable opportunities in the biopharma space which includes bio-services and contract research. However, there is ample scope for growth especially in the biosimilars space also . There are 48 biopharma products to come off patent in the next decade. While the potential is immense , producing a biosimilar is lot more challenging compared to small molecule generics. The sector’s strength in biopharma manufacturing will help the country to play a leading role globally,says Dr. Satya Dash, Chief Operating Officer, Association of Biotech led Entrepreneurs (ABLE) India in an e:mail interview with Nandita Vijay. Excerpts:
How do you perceive the present biotechnology developments in the country?
Biotechnology industry in India has reached an inflexion point and is poised for exponential growth. Our capabilities and strengths in bio-services and contract research are well known. Building on these strengths, innovation, discovery research and value capture via Intellectual Property (IP) has to be co-opted for future growth. This is already starting to happen in the industry across several segments from bio-pharma, agri-biotech, diagnostics to bioinformatics. Besides, a systemic support system is emerging too in the areas of infrastructure, legal and IP services, clusters, incubators etc. These are all healthy signs for future growth.
Having touched $3 billion mark, what are the factors needed to take the sector to the next level of growth?
Indeed, the recent Biospectrum-ABLE survey highlighted the fact that the industry has touched $3 billion and total revenue grew by 17% over the previous financial year despite the global economic downturn. For an industry to grow to the next level,several pieces of puzzle need to come together. While optimal policies and regulations from the government are essential factors; capacity building, enhanced industry-academia & industry-industry collaborations, boosting entrepreneurship, access to capital and importantly efficient translation of ideas from bench to market hold the key to reach the next level.
What according to you are India’s key strengths in the bio-pharma space?
India has well known strengths in bio-pharma manufacturing and process innovation especially in vaccines, insulin and monoclonal antibodies. Indeed the country is a leader in paediatric vaccines and in future will play a big role in affordable therapeutic products.
ABLE and PwC published a report on Bio-Pharma (Vision 2020: A Bio Pharma Strategy for India) recently at the behest of Department of Pharmaceutical GOI. The report identified the big opportunities in the biopharma space especially in biosimilars. Though at present India has a small share of 1.4% of the global biopharma market,by 2020 the aim is to capture 10% of the global market which is estimated to touch US $319 billion by 2020. Moreover 48 biopharma products are due to come off patent in the next decade. While the potential is immense ,it should be noted that to produce a biosimilar is lot more challenging compared to small molecule generics and this is where the existing strengths of India in biopharma manufacturing is making the difference and will help make the country a leading player globally.
Which sectors are likely to grow in the future?
All the three aspects of manufacturing, discovery research and services are poised to grow even more in future. What we need is an efficient ecosystem which can be leveraged by all three of the afore mentioned categories.
While the growth of the bio-pharm sector has been driven by large pharma companies,the small entrepreneurs are still grappling in this space. What is your view on this? How supportive are union government policies to nurture the entrepreneurial growth?
There is a lack of venture and angel funding in biotech industry. I think access to risk capital remains an important issue not just for start ups but also for corporates though it is more acute for start-ups. The government has some innovative programmes to boost entrepreneurial growth across the board, SBIRI and BIPP are case in point. However for the number of innovative ideas being generated in this space , we need many more seed and start-up funds. The government should also consider establishing “venture” funds to foster innovation.
In India, there have been only a few cases of biotech IPOs. This needs to increase as it is crucial since if the investors especially VCs do not see a successful exit ,then they would be reluctant to invest. The business of biotechnology is different as an innovative molecule or even a biosimilar can take a good part of the decade to reach the market. This is in contrast to a typical IT venture. Therefore I think the VC community needs to be made aware of the unique issues pertaining to this industry.
Our academic institutions are full of great biotech ideas and technologies. However, many academic and public funded institutions lack the expertise and culture for translational research. I think there is a need to set up Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and incubation centres in academic institutions. These centres also need to be effective and incorporate the global best practices.
Stimulating entrepreneurship should start early. In this regard, Department of Biotechnology’s Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Student Team (BEST ) programme that is conducted by ABLE is worth mentioning. As a part of this entrepreneurship programme we have seen very good biotech business ideas from university teams from across the country. This year, for example, we received close to 200 applications and we awarded six prizes in total. These teams then get a chance to interact with the investor community at ABLE’s BioInvest event that held in Mumbai each year. Such biotechnology entrepreneurship programmes should be developed for individual regions.
Could you comment on the ‘bio-cluster’ concept which is driving the biotech growth of Karnataka?
Bangalore is indeed a premier hub for biotechnology with a good mix of several biotech firms, leading academic institutions such as Indian Institute of Science (IISc), National Centre for Biological Sciences ( NCBS) and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research ( JNCASR) and support service companies such as leading biotech suppliers and law firms. Clusters and networks are particularly important to facilitate innovation and improve productivity besides leading to increased opportunities for synergistic collaborations. However, clusters take time to grow and mature and all the macro factors affecting the industry do have an effect on a cluster too. Therefore the Bangalore cluster too needs continued support.
An emerging specialised bio-cluster in Bangalore especially Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), InStem and NCBS in the GKVK campus, genomic and next generation sequencing application initiatives at Genomics Applications and Informatics Technology Labs (GANIT) in IBAB campus as well as an emerging healthcare delivery cluster at Narayana Hrudayalaya will play a major role keeping Karnataka at the forefront of biotechnology.
Similar bio-clusters are developing in Faridabad, Mohali and Hyderabad which bodes well for the industry. Let’s us not forget that Mumbai-Pune-Ahmedabad is another innovative biotech region with many cutting edge biotech firms and reputed institutions.
One defining factor for success of cluster will be free flow of information and networking opportunities both within a cluster as well as between clusters.
In your view what are the future focus areas of the sector?
There is a whole gamut of focus areas for biotechnology. New improved crop varieties, affordable healthcare products be it next generation of vaccines, protein therapeutics and bio-energy solutions as well as diagnostics and devices will help address the future challenges that India and the world will face.
Within this, India has to keep pace with the rapidly evolving technologies and aim to be at the cutting edge in the new emerging fields of regenerative medicine and RNAi to name a few. This will need continued support from the Government.
What is ABLE's role to accelerate the growth of biotech sector?
The industry is $3 billion now and is expected to touch $10 billion by 2015. ABLE will play an important role in facilitating this growth. Our mandate is to see on the one hand that we advocate to the government for optimal policies and regulation in all segments of the sector, channel the concerns and needs of the industry, foster entrepreneurship and collaboration, facilitate industry-academia collaborations, help build industry ready manpower, showcase the strengths of the industry to the global audience and facilitate international collaborations.
We are working with our collaborators, “Aspiring Minds”, to initiate a “biotechnology-certification” programme that envisions to create a standard test for industry.
We have launched a special group on agri-biotech called ABLE-AG. Similar focus groups or taskforce in biologics/biosimilars, regenerative medicine, diagnostics and devices are being planned. We will also bring out with help of our collaborating partners ,roadmaps for all segments in the biotech sector.
ABLE runs several successful events. Our partnership with BIO, US as evidenced in the recently held BioIndia Partnering event at Hyderabad on September 22 and 23 is a case in point. Over 750 official one- to-one meetings were scheduled with many informal meetings were held during two days of conference.
ABLE is also keen to have collaborations with other international trade bodies in Europe and Asia Pacific. ABLE is also a knowledge partner at Bangalore India Bio and we look forward to contributing to that.
ABLE therefore is looking forward to working with all the stakeholders in the Indian biotech landscape.