As of 2015, the biotechnology sector in India is worth $5 billion with an annual growth rate of 30%. The majority of India’s 400 biotech companies are agglomerated in India’s Genome Valley on the outskirts of southern city of Hyderabad.
India’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) provides support and infrastructure to the country’s biotech sector. In 2015, the DBT began drafting the National Biotechnology Development Strategy (NBDS) 2, which adds ownership protection to the list of key points outlined in the first NBDS released in 2005, including funds for basic research & early stage development and for flexible technology transfer mechanism.
“We want to make Indian biotechnology a $100 billion sector by 2025. I really believe this can be done if we have right policies in place, right resources and right investments,” says Biocon chairman and managing director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. Biocon, India’s largest biotech company and the seventh largest biotech employer in the world, is pushing for new and innovative health care.
The growth of this sector encourages innovation in vaccines, blood clotting agents, and drugs to aid enzyme and hormone production. These developments are the products of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries and due to the expansion of private corporations that are dedicated to treating diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
For example, the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest producer of vaccines, has sold 1.3 billion doses. Today, two out of every three children worldwide have been immunized by a Serum Institute vaccine. India also became the largest producer of the recombinant hepatitis B vaccine after Shantha Biotechnics (now owned by French company Sanofi) sold 120 million doses of the hepatitis B vaccine in 2009. This lowered the price of the vaccine in India from $23 to $1 per dose.
Within the subsector of bio-agriculture, India is the largest producer of Bt-cotton, a genetically modified cotton plant that produces an insecticidal enzyme and increases crop survival. The seeds are supplied by Missouri-based agricultural biotech corporation Monsanto and Bt-cotton is distributed in India by Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company, which holds a joint venture with Monsanto. With 11.6 million hectares of Bt-cotton farming, 95% of all cotton farmed in India is Bt-cotton. As a result, India’s cotton output grew from 13 million bales in 2002 to 40 million bales in 2014. India is now the number one global exporter of cotton and the world’s second largest cotton producer.
Foreign companies seek to partner with Indian biotech research and development firms, varying from biopharmaceutical to biogenetic companies. For example, in 2014, New Jersey-based Cancer Genetics Inc. acquired Bioserve India to improve patient care using Bioserve’s genomic services, including DNA synthesis, genotyping, and molecular testing. Earlier in May 2012, French seed producer Vilmorin acquired a 61% stake in Hyderabad-based Bisco Bio Sciences for an undisclosed amount and acquired the remaining stake in 2013 for $25 million.
The rise of this industry creates new job opportunities, and the research conducted benefits global health, medicine development, and crop production. As India’s biotech sector grows, the world will see increased crop yields, affordable vaccines, effective biomedical drugs, and improved treatments for diseases such as cancer.
Last updated: August 7th, 2015
