Indian Biotech industry gained growth momentum by recording the fastest growth in the last five years to touch revenues of US$ 4 billion or Rs.18,399.34 crore in 2010-11.
Of this, the biotech industry contributed Rs.17,249.34 crore while the life science education market made-up for the remaining Rs.1,150 crore. The biotech industry, without the life sciences education component, recorded revenue growth of 21.5 percent over 2009-10 revenues of Rs.14,199 crore.
This has been revealed in the 9th annual BioSpectrum-Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) survey.
The Top 10 South based companies, led by Biocon, contributed US$1 billion in revenues at Rs.4816 crore.
The contribution of BioPharma, BioServices, BioAgri, Bioindustrials and Bioinformatics verticals was Rs.10,645 crore, Rs.3245.97 crore, Rs.2480 crore, Rs.626 crore and Rs.252 crore respectively.
The BioPharma vertical contributed almost two-fifth of the industry revenues, followed by BioServices with 18.82 per cent and BioAgri with 14.38 per cent contribution. Bioindustrials and BioInformatics made up the rest of the industry revenue.
The fastest growing sector, BioAgri, has increased its market share in the last five years – from less than five percent to over 14 percent of the 2011 industry revenue. With every cotton farmer lapping up every Bt cotton seed produced by the two dozen companies this sector is on a growth path. Five BioAgri companies now form part of the BioSpectrum-ABLE Top 20 list.
The domestic BioServices market has increased by three percent in 2010-11 over last year’s five percent share in the segment revenue.
BioInformatics companies have increased exports business revenue in 2010-11 to claim 42 per cent segment share with more focus on customers in the US and Europe. Growth of biologics in the domestic market gave an eight percent boost to the BioPharma segment which clocked about 21 per cent growth in 2010-11.
Cheaper biochemical alternatives dragged down the growth of Bioindustrial segment. It grew at 10.98 percent in 2010-11, a drop of 7.01 percent over previous year’s growth.
The biotech industry derived 51 percent of the overall revenues--Rs 8,852.34 crore from exports.
Biocon retained its top slot of no.1 company in the overall revenue ranking, growing at 26 per cent. Of the Top 20 companies, Shantha Biotech and Jubilant Life Sciences faced a drop in revenue while Ankur Seeds posted a spectacular growth, nearly doubling its revenues.
Nearly 175 Biotech companies in South India contributed to 44 per cent of the total revenues in 2010-11, up from 39 per cent in 2009-10. Western Indian states with 139 companies contributed to nearly 43.60 per cent.
In terms of the number of companies, south dominated with 175 companies, while west has 139 companies. North India with 48 companies was the next biggest contributor.
Bangalore’s Biocon retained top spot with revenues of Rs.1083 crore, followed by Serum Institute (Rs.1041 crore) from Pune, New Delhi based Panacea Biotec (Rs.928.41 crore), Nuziveedu Seeds from Hyderabad (Rs.610 crore), and Reliance Life Sciences (Rs.490 crore) from Mumbai at serial no 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. Serum Institute recovered from its previous year’s slump, thanks to the robust sales of the newly introduced Swine flu vaccine.
Comparing the growth by region, the south region has caught up with the west, improving its share in the overall Indian biotech industry to 44.22 percent in 2010-11 from 39 per cent in 2009-10. The west region’s share is 43.60 per cent. The northern cluster contributed just in double digit share. The eastern region continues to remain insignificant in the overall biotech scheme of things.
Top 10 companies in the south have contributed Rs.4,816.47 crore (27 percent) of the total biotechnology industry while Top 10 companies from west have about 21.17 percent of the total industry contributing Rs.3,651.25 crore.