Indian Biotech Industry Successful IT cousin

Closely following information technology, the next success in India is biotechnology. As per Mckinsey by 2020, only two main biotechnology companies will comprise a market capitalization, which will be the same as the collective market capitalization of all of the IT companies at present.

This rapid growth in biotechnology is working as an incentive to bio-industry executives, research scientists, and venture capitalists to come together to put forth ideas that would triple the market for bio-products. The latest inclination is towards the application of IT to biotechnology, transgenic crops, plant genomes, crop protection, food security, and induced resistance to plant diseases. With this in the background a number of biotechnology researchers want to become entrepreneurs.

The world currently spends about US $7 billion on outsourced biotech R&D. Further this is expected to grow by 30% every year for the next 5 years. Also there is a growing increase in the global trend to outsource R&D to areas of lower-cost capabilities in biotechnology. CROs can be compared with software development in the IT sector in terms of the formers activity and they have a potential to function as export oriented units.

Bio-informatics can prosper relatively easily through the development of software to handle biological data. Biotechnology is the most updated division of science, which is believed to have immense potential in agriculture and environment.

In their market research report, “Indian Biotechnology Market Outlook (2006)” RNCOS’ analysts reveal that the present biotech workforce employed in India is 10,000 and this is expected to double in 2006. Of this total workforce 50% will be in research, 35%in the technical and services sector, and 15% in management.

The report gives a clear picture of the future Indian biotech market, the initiatives and policies of central and state governments covering all segments of the market. Having made an intensive SWOT analysis the report analyzes the sector in terms of size, demand, and foreign and domestic markets for 2005 while making forecasts till 2010.

Finally the report lists company profiles of 20 major companies in the biotech industry including Shantha Biotechnics, Biocon, Bharat Biotech, Wockhardt, Serum Institute of India, Zydus Cadila, and Aventis Pharma.