Bio Pharma crosses $1 billion in sales

The BioPharma sector comprising mainly of vaccines, therapeutic drugs, animal biologicals, statins and diagnostics registered record sales of Rs 4,708 crore in 2005-06, recording 31.88 percent growth over that in the previous fiscal. And on its own, this sector alone has surpassed the $1 billion mark in 2005-06. This sector, like elsewhere in the world, is the single largest contributor to the biotech industry's size. It accounted for over 72 percent to the total Indian biotech industry's revenues of Rs 6,521 crore during 2005-06. Interestingly, the Indian biopharma sector is export driven. Exports accounted for 53 percent of the total income.

Clearly, Indian biopharma companies are thinking global and global companies in India are thinking local. The mantra of Indian companies has been affordability at international quality. A quick glance at the Top 20 companies in the BioPharma business (excluding the diagnostics sector) shows that only six are multinationals, while the rest 14 are home grown companies. The diagnostics sector however has a strong MNC representation.

Despite stiff competition in the international markets, the exports of biopharma products have increased from 41 percent to 53 percent. This is mainly on account of exports of vaccines and statins. The leading vaccines manufacturer, Serum Institute of India, which was India's top biotech company by revenues in 2005-06, saw 80 percent of its sales coming from exports. Similarly Biocon, the second largest company in the biopharma business, despite the pricing pressure in the global statins market, clocked Rs 603 crore in revenues.

With an eye on capturing the global market, Indian companies are strengthening their manufacturing capacities and R&D focus. Take for example the two leading Indian companies in the BioPharma sector, Serum Institute of India and Biocon Group. These two companies have been granted the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status and have been making huge investments upwards of Rs 1,000 crore on developing the infrastructure for the same at Pune and Bangalore respectively. Similarly other biotech companies like Biological E and Jubilant Organosys have submitted proposals to Board of Approval of Ministry of Commerce for setting up biotech sector SEZ at Ranga Reddy in Andhra Pradesh and at Mysore in Karnataka respectively. The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation too is keen on setting up such a zone at Aurangabad in Maharashtra in an area of 107 hectares to support the industry.

India is now emerging as a major player in the vaccines business. The income from sale of vaccines (human health) accounted for over 38 percent share of the total BioPharma sector of Rs 4,708 crore. The vaccines business in 2005-06 is estimated at Rs 1,800 crore. Diagnostics was the next big sector with over 19 percent market share. While therapeutics and animal biologicals respectively accounted for 13.6 percent and 11.5 percent share of the BioPharma sector, the rest which includes statins and others drugs generated Rs 822 crore in revenues.

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