Biotech's sweet smell of growth
June 09, 2011 | Thursday | News

After two years of comparatively stagnant growth, India's
biotech industry has got back into its groove. In the last fiscal year
of 2010-11, the industry has topped the 20 percent annual growth mark
once again after a gap of two years.
According to the 9th BioSpectrum-ABLE Biotech Industry Survey 2011,
done in April-May, the industry, has grown by 21.5 percent to
reach

17,400 crore in revenues in 2010-11. In
dollar terms, it is
slightly less than the $4 billion. But on adding the estimated revenues
of

1,150 crore generated by the nearly 400
private and public
educational institutions from their biotech courses, the overall
revenues crosses the $4 billion (

18,400 crore) mark for the first
time ever.
The industry had its annual gathering at Bangalore India Bio in early
May. It is time for the industry to come together once again to pat
each other and exchange some high fives.
India's biotech industry has few saviors. The most prominent savior is
the BioAgri industry. With the cotton farmer lapping up every Bt cotton
seed produced by the two dozen companies, this sector is on a
growth path. With five BioAgri companies in the 9th BioSpectrum-ABLE
Top 20 Rank, the revenues from this sector are providing a cushion to
the industry collectively.
Another remarkable fact this time is the higher than industry growth
achieved by some of the prominent members of the BioSpectrum–ABLE Top
20 companies, the industry has a healthy picture to present. The Top
five companies have grown in excess of 25 percent in the last
fiscal year.
Interestingly, the share of the Top 20 companies in the overall
industry revenues has declined by seven percent, from 53 to 45 percent
this year. This indicates that companies beyond the Top 20 list are
also gaining traction and contributing significantly to the overall
growth. As the industry matures, the share of the Top 20 companies
should decline gradually. Overall, the industry generated over

3,000
crore in revenues over the previous year. The Top 10 companies
accounted for nearly two-thirds of the net income generated by the
industry collectively.
Biocon has maintained its No.1 rank for the second consecutive year,
backed by strong growth in its key markets. The diversified portfolio
built up in the last few years is adding muscle to Biocon's growth. The
No.2 company, Serum Institute of India has also recovered from its
previous year's slump, thanks to the robust sales of the newly
introduced swine flu vaccine. Bharat Biotech has surged past its
industry rival and pioneer Shantha Biotech in revenues. Shantha
Biotech, now a part of the Sanofi Pasteur Group, had a few
setbacks due to the withdrawal of some products from the market last
year.
This survey has completed nine years. Even after nine years, the
landscape of the biotech cluster remains more or less the same. The
western and southern biotech clusters account for an overwhelming share
of the industry with the northern cluster just in double digit share.
The eastern region continues to remain insignificant in the overall
biotech scheme of things. The southern and western clusters are
neck-to-neck in the revenue race with very little to separate these two
dominant regions. The government is pushing the industry to the eastern
parts of the country. It has set up some research centers which should
form the nucleus of the sector in the coming decades.
The details of the 9th BioSpectrum-ABLE Industry Survey 2011 are
available in the magazine. We have tried to provide more tables and
analysis with the limited data shared by the industry for this
purpose. I look forward to the suggestions to make the next edition of
the survey even more useful to everyone.

Narayanan Suresh
Chief Editor
sureshn@cybermedia.co.in