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Whether it's manufacturing bullet-proof vests from goat's milk, breeding chickens that produce life-saving drugs in their eggs or ready-to-transfer plants that make for disease-free crops, India may soon face a different biotech reality.

"BANANAS to cure cancer. Bullet-proof vests from goat's milk." Sample some future technologies that biotechnology holds the key to. With a gene put in here and knocked off there — easier said than done though — the promises and surprises in the field are innumerable, say scientists.

In recent decades, here's probably one world of opportunity that has engaged corporate and Government minds like no other. Corporate R&D investments, drug companies, agriculture research, Government budgets and policies, and investor strategies have pinned their business hopes on developing cheaper biotech products such as medicine, food, disease-free crops and even perfect animals.

Virtually every forecast on the biotech industry is gung-ho about its prospects. BIO, the Biotech Industry Organisation of the US, says the global sale of biotech products is set to grow from $25 billion in 2001 to $60 billion in 2015. The Confederation of Indian Industry has equally impressive projections; the domestic biotech sector will grow to $1.5 billion and see major activities involving global majors over the next five years

According to a recent Ernst & Young Biotech report, `Beyond Borders', India can emerge a major base of biotech activity in the Asia-Pacific region. Indian entrepreneurs can get into manufacturing bio-generics or offering contract research services to the global biotech industry. With its stunning IT record, it can tap excellent commercial opportunities in bio-informatics too. Traditional IT companies such as Satyam are getting into datamining and warehousing for biotech research with the Centre for Cellular Molecular Biology. Or even IBM, with its India Research Lab.

For the domestic sector, there is immense potential in global contract, clinical trial opportunities, contract manufacturing and bio-informatics markets

In recent years, the biotech scene has been seeing a top-down Government drive through supportive infrastructure, taxation and other policies. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Haryana and many other States have scented their opportunities and announced exclusive biotech parks to promote the industry.

Though a full-fledged policy is absent, the latest Union Budget has put this segment on par with infotech for tax concessions. The Government of India has also more than doubled the biotech research Plan outlay, from Rs 622 crore in the Ninth Plan (1997-2002) to Rs 1,450 crore in the 10th Plan. It has projected that India would corner 8 per cent of the world biotech products by 2010. The global demand is projected at $50 billion.

The figures for the global biotech industry during 2001 are impressive: 4,284 companies, including 622 public ones across 25 nations. These 622 public companies generated revenues of $35 billion, made R&D spends of $16 billion and employed more than 1,88,000 people. Over 480 pharma-biotech joint ventures and 550 biotech-biotech partnerships are anticipated globally.

According to the Director of E&Y, India, Mr Utkarsh Palnitkar, in spite of a dull IPO year, the global biotech industry generated over $10 billion in venture capital, public and private equity funds in 2001. In the US, which dominates the biotech scene, biotech companies raised nearly $8 billion in equity financing. Their European counterparts raised over $2 billion and Canadian companies nearly $900 million.

In the world of pharmaceuticals, biodrugs based on recombinant DNA technique are considered safer and more target-specific than conventional drugs. Major investments are now going into bio-engineered drugs for diseases from diabetes and cancer to HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

The global biopharmaceuticals market is estimated at Rs 33,000 crore and is said to be growing at the rate of 15 per cent annually, in a scene dominated by global majors.

India is seen as a key source and market for biopharma and food. When several big drugs go off patent in the coming years, pharma companies from all over will be getting into this market quickly through the biotech mode. The bio-generic drugs are estimated to replace 70 per cent of the conventional therapies by 2025.

Strategic tie-ups between big pharma companies and small biotech start-ups are already happening for contract research and manufacturing.

With over 350 biotech drug products in the pipeline across the world, this is also the chance for Indian pharma biotech companies. By 2005, the Indian market for recombinant medicine is also tipped to grow from Rs 535 crore to Rs 958 crore. Investments into biodrugs are also expected to grow to Rs 500 crore. Currently, four companies are into making the hepatitis B and several pharma companies have active biotech plans.

The year 2003, according to Ms Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CEO of Biocon India and head of the CII taskforce on biotechnology, would be the year of bio-drugs like the human insulin, streptokinase, recombinant hep B, Interferon Alpha 2b, vaccines and diagnostics. Biocon is working with Genencor on biofuels and Affymax.

India is also on the collaborations strategy map of potential US biotech majors such as Affymax, Affymetrix, Sequenom, Incyte, Agilent. Other interested parties are Quintiles, Clintec, Ikon and Covance. VCs ING Barings, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Warburg Pincus and Rabo Bank are eyeing the biotech segment.

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