Looking at the biopharmaceutical sector as a sunrise industry, the Mumbai-based Shreya Life Sciences is currently developing one of the biggest biopharmaceutical manufacturing cum R&D centers in the country at the Hinjewadi Biotechnology Park near Pune in Maharashtra. The company's initial focus would be recombinant products and vaccines.

As part of the major initiative the company will buy five more acres of land in addition to the already acquired 10 acres in the biotechnology Park. Confirming this, Suranjan Sinha Roy, head, operations, Shreya Life Sciences, said that the deal will be finalized any time from now.

Shreya Life Sciences is primarily a pharmaceutical marketing and distribution company in the country. However, the company now surely visualizes the biotech industry to be the next sunrise industry after IT, said Sinha Roy.

Hinjewadi Biotech Park is a joint venture between The Chatterjee Group (TCG) and MIDC. The former holds 88 per cent of equity in the park compared to MIDC's 12 per cent.

Shreya had acquired 10 acres in 2001. It is an occupant in the Hinjewadi Park along with Emcure, who has acquired 14 acres in the park so far.

The Shreya official was reluctant to give the rate at which the property will be purchased. Same was the case with the MIDC officials. "We are flexible on the rates. Rates are based on criteria like the stature of the buyer, the kind of biotech activity he will be involved in, the area in the park he is selecting etc. The rates which prevailed two years back has increased now," he said.

The rates are fixed by the TCG. The actual rate of selling will be the cost of land in addition to other infrastructure charges. The promoters of the park are serious about making it purely a biotech park. The only condition for any entrant into the park is that it should be a 100 per cent biotech company, without any pharmaceutical operations. In order to encourage smaller enterprises and startups, the promoters are ready to sell the land even lower than one acre, provided the credentials of the player is strong. The promoters of the park want to take their own time in assessing the right buyer. "We do not want to make this park as any other biotech park. It really takes time to screen the credentials of the right company. MIDC could have completely filled the park even by 2001 end, but we took our own time. We don't want to select a wrong candidate and later feel guilty because it did not work," he said. We don't want to select a wrong candidate and later feel guilty because it did not work, he said.

The companies operating within the park will be able to enjoy financial incentives on power tariffs, exemption on registration, electricity and stamp duty in addition to twice admissible FSI, Knowledge Processing Zone status and other incentives.