INDIA'S EMERGING BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY

India's pre-eminent role as a global software provider creates the impetus to develop similar capabilities in the realm of Biotechnology. A large reservoir of scientific human resource, centers of academic excellence in the Biosciences, a vibrant pharmaceutical industry and fast developing clinical capabilities collectively point to a booming Biotechnology sector in the future.

The Biotechnology sector, although nascent at the present time and accounting for a mere 2% of the global Biotechnology market, is poised for exponential growth over the next 5 years with an expected global market share of 10%. Indigenous Biotech products and services presently account for approximately $150 million. The current segmentation is shared equally between Human Therapeutics such as vaccines and biogenerics, Contract Research Services including r-DNA technologies, genomics & bioinformatics, and Industrial Products such as industrial enzymes, diagnostics and bioprocessing equipment and instrumentation. An emerging segment is Agri-biotech which is expected to realize rapid growth over the next 5 years and will account for at least 15% of the total indigenous Biotech market. The consumption of biotech products in India is estimated to increase ten -fold to $1.5 billion by 2007 and to $4.5 billion by 2010.