The biosciences revenue of the Indian BioSuppliers market touched Rs 8666 crore in 2019-20 registering a growth of 9 per cent over the previous year’s figure of Rs 7950 crore in 2018-19. The market registered a growth of 6 per cent in 2018-19 over the previous year’s figure of Rs 7500 crore. The government’s allocation of Rs 1,900 crore for research in the Union Budget 2019-20 and Rs 62,659 crore allocated for Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have helped the biosuppliers to see some good growth during the year as against the growth rate witnessed in 2018-19.

BioSpectrum brings to you the Top 20 BioSuppliers for the FY19-20. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, we had to delay our survey process this year. Also, please note that we have not covered some of the leading distributors as they were unable to participate in BioSpectrum Bio Suppliers Survey 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation.

Here is a glimpse of the top 5 rankers-

#1- Sartorius India Pvt. Ltd.

Sartorius generated a revenue of Rs 600 crore* in India during the FY19-20 in the life sciences/ biosciences space exhibiting a growth of 20 per cent from the last fiscal when the company generated a revenue of Rs 500 crore. India along with China and South Korea are the key sectors of business for Sartorius within the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. A revenue generation of Rs 4043 crore was recorded for the APAC region during the FY19-20.

Asia is a key focal area of Sartorius’ regional growth strategy. Asia has a sizeable growth potential, thus Sartorius has been heavily investing here in sales infrastructure and plans to increase production capacity. Bengaluru in India is home to one of the company’s centres of excellence in bioprocess engineering and manufacturing. This facility caters to serving customers’ requirements across the globe.

On the whole, Germany headquartered Sartorius Group has been annually growing by double digits on average and has been regularly expanding its portfolio by acquisitions of complementary technologies. For the FY19-20, the company clocked in a global revenue of Rs 15925 crore in the life sciences/ biosciences sector.

A major development that took place in 2020 for the company was the acquisition of the life sciences business of the American company Danaher Corporation. The company’s broader offering as a result of the acquisition will support customers even more comprehensively in the development of biotech medicines and vaccines, as well as in the safe and efficient production of such pharmaceuticals. Sartorius is thus extending its market position in bioanalytics as well as in key areas of the manufacture of biotech medications.

The year 2020 also saw the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) recognizing Sartorius India in Bengaluru for its efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Following an assessment of the working practices under the conditions of the pandemic crisis, the team in India received the gold category award.

In addition, Sartorius is supporting the Chinese biopharmaceutical company CanSinoBIO right from the beginning in its development of the first vaccine candidate to enter clinical trials against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. CanSinoBIO used the Sartorius BIOSTAT STR single-use bioreactor system for upstream preparation of the recombinant vaccine, thus ensuring rapid linear amplification of the adenovirus vector (Ad5-nCoV) and ultimately saving time during development.

The company foresees a profitable growth of 4 billion euro sales revenue in 2025 by helping customers in biopharma and life science to develop and manufacture medicines in an accelerated and efficient way based on the company’s deep understanding of their workflows and needs.

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#2- Shimadzu Analytical India Pvt Ltd

Shimadzu Analytical India Pvt. Ltd (SAIP), a subsidiary of Shimadzu Asia Pacific Pvt Ltd, Singapore clocked in a revenue figure of Rs 528.14 crore in the life sciences/ biosciences space during the FY19-20, showing a growth of 12 per cent from the revenue generated during FY18-19 at Rs 468 crore. Although the year 2020 brought in a lot of uncertainties due to the ongoing pandemic, it was remarkable for Shimadzu because 2020 marks 50 years since the release of Shimadzu's first mass spectrometry (MS) device, the LKB-9000.

To mark this achievement, the company has created the 50th anniversary logo to embody two ideas at the core of Shimadzu's MS business- (i) Looking to the future- The ion traversing the past 50 years and accelerating towards the future symbolises the passion for forward-looking innovation; (ii) High reliability- The depiction of an MS spectrum represents the high reliability Shimadzu strives to provide in its products and solutions.

In response to the current crisis, Shimadzu has initiated a number of projects such as increasing the production of mobile X-Ray systems to accelerate pneumonia diagnoses and delivering various high-technology medical imaging systems to hospitals. The company has also developed a COVID-19 detection kit based on its unique gene amplification reagent, Ampdirect technology for PCR analysis, and the pathogen detection manual from the Japanese National Institute for Infectious Diseases. As compared to regular kits, this detection kit eliminates the need for RNA extraction and purification and halves the overall time required for PCR detection.

In addition, a Shimadzu group company called Alsachim located in France with expertise in the R&D of stable isotope labeled compounds has synthesized the internal standards necessary for the assay of the drug candidates tested against COVID-19. Shimadzu and Alsachim are supporting drug development and clinical trials by providing instruments and internal standards for LC/MS of anti-COVID-19 drug candidates.

Besides contributing to this fight against the pandemic, the company has also announced the launch of new products in 2020 such as a multimodal imaging system, TOC analyser for pure water and a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer with world-class sensitivity and detection speeds.

Incorporated in 2006, SAIP caters to a large number of industries such as metals, clinical research, electronics, food and beverages, automative, petrochemical, pharmaceuticals and life sciences. Shimadzu actively supports life science and biotech research in wide variety of areas such as proteomics, genomics and metabolomics. The company also provides analytical instruments that meet the needs of the modern age by helping to manufacture safe pharmaceuticals in compliance with IQ/OQ requirements and other applicable regulations. Following the virtues of Japan headquartered Shimadzu Corporation, SAIP promotes unique and innovative solutions for biopharmaceuticals.

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#3- Corning Technologies India Pvt Ltd

Corning generated a revenue of Rs 500 crore* in India during the FY19-20 in the life sciences space. India has shown great potential and continues to be part of the growth plan for Corning Life Sciences outside of the US market. India is one of the fastest-growing markets in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. Overall, the company exceeded $1 billion (approx. Rs 7419 crore) in sales in the life sciences segment in 2019, which accounts for 10 per cent of the total revenue of Corning.

Corning Incorporated, founded in 1851, and headquartered in Corning, New York, USA is one of the world’s leading innovators in materials science. For more than 165 years, Corning has applied its unparalleled expertise in specialty glass, ceramics, and optical physics to develop products that have created new industries and transformed people’s lives.

Corning entered the India market in late 1980s to produce cathode ray tube (CRT) glass for the TV industry. This local production of CRT TV glass supported the advancement of affordable TV ownership across the region. Corning then established a liaison office in India in 1988. Since then, Corning has been actively participating in India’s development, working with local expertise to develop and apply Corning’s breakthrough technologies that significantly improve people’s lives. Today, Corning’s investments in India align well with emerging market trends in the region.

Corning Life Sciences offers a comprehensive range of innovative, high-quality labware products and solutions for life science research and bio production. Corning provides the world’s most comprehensive line of drug discovery tools to support Indian biotechnology researchers in their quest to minimize the time and cost being spent on the development of new medicines.  With India’s population expected to reach 1.6 billion in 2027 (per the 2019 UN Report on World Population), this growing population demands not only large-scale production of vaccines but also research for newer vaccines relevant to India. Corning’s bioprocessing tools are already helping Indian biopharma companies develop and produce vaccines. The acquisition of the BD (Becton Dickinson) Discovery Labware business in 2012 has expanded the Corning Life Sciences product portfolio and enhanced its access to an extensive dealer network to serve customers in India.

Corning is also looking for new business opportunities for other product lines, including its Advanced-Flow™ reactors and MASTERPIX™.

Corning Advanced-Flow™ reactors are engineered designed for the seamless scale up from lab scale to industrial-scale production of chemicals for the pharmaceutical, specialty, fine chemical, agro-chemicals and petrochemicals industries.

MASTERPIX™ prints photos onto thin, durable, optically clear Corning® Gorilla® Glass, which has been used as a cover glass on more than 7 billion electronic devices around the world. The same tough, damage-resistant glass that helps protect phones and tablets is now available to help preserve people’s most cherished moments.

Across the company’s business segments, Corning continues to bring life-changing innovations powered by specialty glass and ceramics to India’s markets.

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#4 West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. 

The India business for US based West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. generated a revenue figure of Rs 410 crore in the life sciences/ biosciences space during the FY19-20, showing a growth of 11 per cent when compared to Rs 370 crore generated in the previous fiscal.

Amidst the pandemic, West Pharma announced the opening of its warehousing operations in Chennai in August 2020. The warehouse in Sriperumbudur will be serving customers within the Indian market and is integral to West's ongoing efforts to enhance the customer experience through shorter lead time and improved trading process. The warehouse will initially stock a small number of the top stock keeping units (SKUs) being ordered by customers from these regions and will expand to offer more SKUs.

The year 2020 also saw the launch of the AccelTRA Ready to Sterilize (RTS)/Ready to Use (RTU) product line in the Indian market, under the AccelTRA components programme. It has been designed to provide generic drug manufacturers with components for injectable drug delivery that meet the challenges of today’s fast-paced market. West has designed AccelTRA components around the ideas of quality, speed and simplicity to help address the unique needs of generic drug manufacturers to be able to quickly respond to un-forecasted market demand while meeting increasing quality standards. The RTS components were made available in India earlier this year, and the RTU gamma sterilized components are now available

AccelTRA products are currently stocked in India to deliver speed to the local generic drug manufacturers. West’s presence in India began in 2004 with a commercial office in Hyderabad, and has since expanded with the establishment of a manufacturing plant in Sri City in 2014 and a Digital Technology Centre (DTC) in Bengaluru in 2019.

Formed in 1923, West creates products that promote the efficiency, reliability and safety of the world's pharmaceutical drug supply. West’s products play an important part in the delivery of healthcare. The company manufactures 41 billion components annually and the top 50 biologics rely on West and Daikyo components.

Across each market unit—biologics, generics, pharma and contract manufacturing—customers are seeking out West’s differentiated packaging and delivery devices. The company is seeing that interest grow around the world, with faster growth in the Asia Pacific and South America regions.

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#5- Premas Life Sciences Pvt Ltd

For the FY19-20, New Delhi based Premas Life Sciences (PLS) recorded a revenue figure of Rs 210 crore in the life sciences/ biosciences space, growing at a rate of 14 per cent when compared to the revenue generated during FY18-19 standing at Rs 184 crore.

With much happening in the current year due to COVID-19, PLS inked a few major agreements in 2020. For instance, US based company Codex has appointed PLS as the exclusive technology and knowledge distributor of Codex’s BioXP 3200 Platform in India. This is the world’s first fully automated system that can synthesize upto 32 genes, libraries and clones in a single overnight run.

The company has also signed a sales distribution agreement with a South Korean firm Genolution for its Nextractor NX-48S Platform in India. Nextractor NX-48S is a fully automated nucleic acid extraction system that can extract up to 48 samples in one run in 17 minutes only. Through this partnership, PLS is empowering Genolution’s revolutionizing technology that can significantly ramp up the current efforts in COVID19 testing, powered with Nextractor’s complete automation, high throughput and reduced manual error.

The year 2020 also saw US based GenScript Biotech Corporation announcing a strategic sales distribution agreement, appointing PLS as the exclusive technology and knowledge distributor of cPass SARS CoV-2 neutralization antibody detection kit in India. It is the first-in-the-world rapid test kit which can measure neutralizing antibodies within an hour.

With plans to expand more into the diagnostic space and work towards creation of indigenous assays panel, PLS has come a long way from being a young startup to an established leader with a CAGR of 60 per cent in a very short span of time. The year 2021 will be adding another feather to its cap when the company will complete ten years of its inception.

Started in 2011 by a team of highly experienced and proficient professionals, PLS endeavors to bring to researchers and innovation-focused organisations cutting edge tools for applications across human health, agriculture, pharma, environment, forensics, energy and much more. With the advent of the era of genomics & proteomics, leveraging the latest technology to gain an edge in mining and interpreting information has become imperative. With its ensemble range of products, the company facilitates to answer the vital questions of people's research using some of the smartest tools from across the world. Its dynamic portfolio of leading global technologies boasts of some of the most exciting genomics, genetics and cell biology applications, manufactured by global giants like Illumina, Fluidigm, 10X genomics etc.

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* For all the ranking purposes the revenues considered for the analysis are biosciences/ life sciences sales and service figures. In several cases, where revenue figures were not available, estimates were arrived in discussion with industry experts. Therefore, revenue wherever mentioned is not necessarily the total sales turnover of the company.