India: An Emerging Biotech Leader in the Asia Pacific

India has long been known as a leader in IT and software development and is now poised to become a significant biotech centre as well.

“India is becoming a global player in pharmaceutical and biotech drug development.  As a massive knowledge economy, India will without a doubt become an important provider of new intellectual property to the pharma industry and will be able to capitalize on this IP in a highly competitive manner, said Simon Pimstone, President and CEO of Burnaby-based Xenon Pharmaceuticals.

Currently the 11th largest biotech country with approximately 100 public and private companies, India is expected to generate $5 billion in revenues and create more than one million biotech jobs by 2010.  This rapid growth isn’t expected to create a shortage of skilled workers however, the number of students enrolled in masters degree in biotechnology is in the range of 150,000-170,000. By comparison, there are just under 90,000 undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students enrolled at all of British Columbia universities.

Government Policy Will Ensure Growth

The Government of India announced recently that the country will have a national biotechnology strategy by December 2005.  Government has also initiated policy changes such as permitting insurance companies to invest in biotech venture funds as well as an increase in the cap for foreign investment.  Officials hope this will encourage foreign venture capitalists to invest in Indian biotech companies.

Canada is taking notice and investing research dollars.  The Minister of International Trade Jim Peterson traveled to India in September, where he announced $6.75 million over the next five years to fund collaborative research in technology (India was chosen specifically for biotechnology.)  The funding is part of Canada's new International Science and Technology Partnership Program, which aims to build research alliances and commercialize innovative ideas with countries like India, China, Brazil and Israel.

Clinical Trials Seen as the Next Specialty in Biotech

With over 70% of hospitals under private ownership matched with a significant number of Western-trained clinicians, several large pharmaceutical companies have launched clinical trials in India, with surely more to follow.

“Most forward thinking pharma companies are already operating in India especially in the areas of drug scale-up and manufacturing,” states Pimstone. “Those pharma and biotech companies who are not already doing work in India, ought to be considering this as part of their strategic planning."

Genome Valley: India's first biotech cluster providing  infrastructure to over 100 biotech companies. Spread over 600 sq. kms, the Genome Valley is a described as a natural cluster for biotech research, training, collaboration and manufacturing activities.