While the Indian biotechnology sector is all set to play a greater role in the global landscape, Karnataka in particular which accounts for over 50 per cent of the total 350 companies in the country, will continue to play a significant role as an innovative manufacturing hub, adding sheen to India's success story.
Since 2001, Bangalore India Bio has been instrumental in promoting the inherent strength of the Indian biotech industry to the outside world and is now acknowledged as one of the biggest national events on life sciences. The 15th edition organized by Department of IT, BT and S & T, Government of Karnataka, under the guidance of Vision Group on Biotechnology, an apex advisory body comprising members from the government, public and private sectors including industry and academia will be setting the pace to woo investors to drive the Make in India, Digital India and Start-up India initiatives.
This edition will be showcasing the Indian biotech journey on the global arena with the aptly chosen theme "What’s trending in Biotech India." The three- day event will showcase the new, promising and the advanced developments in the sector. The show will bring together the biotech fraternity to sketch the landscape for each of the three areas Bio Pharma, Bio Agri and Bio Services. The objective of the Vision Group on Biotechnology is to identify challenges and opportunities - from funding into basic research to regulatory and policy action - and draft a roadmap for the sector's growth.
The sector which is on a high growth orbit, is one of the most significant sectors enhancing India’s global profile as well as contributing to the growth of the economy. India's strong generic biotechnology potential has attracted a great deal of attention over the past two decades with global companies aggressively joining hands with Indian companies.
The country is vaulting ahead for the next breakthroughs in life sciences from basic science to digital health, from ageing research to cancer treatments, from approaches in the lab to access at the hospital, from food security to food surplus and from energy alternatives to sustainability. With all the support, government initiatives and determination to excel, India can soon attain global leadership in providing affordable healthcare and innovative medicines, quality food and feed for all.
Growing profile of Karnataka in biotech scene
Some of the notable efforts of the companies in Karnataka in 2015 have been development of oral insulin by Biocon which has successfully completed its Phase I studies. Coeo Labs, a medical device -start-up developing VAPCare which is a complete tracheal secretion management device to manage pneumonia has applied for a provisional Indian patent. There are slew of advanced technology companies like Polyclone which is engaged in enzyme engineering, Strand Lifesciences in genomics, MedGenome in the area of genomics diagnostics and Pandorum Technologies which is developing an artificial tissue that performs the functions of the human liver adopting tissue engineering.
According to Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson Vision Group on Biotechnology, government of Karnataka and CMD, Biocon Limited, Bengaluru is already recognized a biotech cluster going by the city’s prowess in research and engineering expertise.
“Biotech is both a technology for the present and future. Going by the focus areas of the future, this sector will help spur the growth of Indian economy”, she added.
The future growth areas for biotech are diagnostics, drug discovery and development, food security, renewable fuels, climate change that will drive use of green technologies. In Karnataka, the growth is driven by bio-pharma research & development, bio-informatics& bio services. “Biotech industry together with bio pharma manufacture, bio services, bio medical devices and bio informatics has been the growth drivers of the economy,” said Shaw.
From a national perspective, the biotechnology sector is on a strong growth trajectory. The country is also among the top 12 biotech destinations globally and ranks third in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of the number of biotech companies according to a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the consultancy firm KPMG.
There is no dearth of talent pool in India. Scores of dedicated biotech colleges and centres of excellence, biotech finishing schools together with the Biocon Academy, a centre of excellence for advanced learning in applied biosciences and the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB) have ample scope either to be employed or take up entrepreneurship.
Karnataka specifically has unveiled the start-up policy and put in place a system to encourage budding entrepreneurs, said V Manjula, principal secretary, department of information technology, biotechnology and science & technology.
Ample funding not only comes in from BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council) which is a department of biotechnology government of India initiative, but also from a dedicated bio-venture fund for which resources are being mobilized , she said.
“We see Karnataka to be a hot bed for investments. Biotech offers a future for global companies to partner with Indian units for development of biologics, diagnostic kits amongst others. The key reason for Karnataka to be way ahead of other states in the area of biotechnology is because of the coming together of industry, academia and policy makers. Centres of excellence like the IBAB and the Centre for Human Genetics(CHG) are giving a fillip to innovation. In fact, CHG which is engaged in advanced research in the rare diseases and genetic disorders is propelling much of the R&D projects of the future. We are also handholding entrepreneurs with laboratory infrastructure. For instance, the Bangalore Bio-innovation Centre at the Electronics City off the Hosur Road in Bengaluru has given a head-start to many start-ups who need not invest in lab space, informed Manjula.
According to Dr. Harsh Vardhan, minister at Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences, the Indian biotech industry holds about two per cent share of the global biotech industry. There are a total of about 800 companies, growing at an average rate of about 20 per cent. The sector is expected to grow from the current US$ 5-7 billion to US$ 100 billion by 2025, growing at an average rate of 30 per cent.
Biopharma is the largest sector contributing about 64 per cent of the total revenue followed by bioservices (18 per cent), bio agri (14 per cent), bio-industry (three per cent), and bio informatics contributing (one per cent).