Bio-Pharmaceutical Industry in India | Market Size, Challenges, and Opportunities and Rise of the Startups in the Indian Biotechnology Space

Despite tremendous opportunities and progress, the Indian biotechnology sector does not get that much limelight and face several challenges. The biotechnology sector is still not that popular with students, parents and even investors in comparison to other sectors like financial services, software, e-commerce, data analytics etc. Here is a comprehensive post on the Indian biotechnology sector (with focus on biopharmaceutical segment) – opportunities, challenges, top companies, top startups, incubators and startup accelerators and venture capitals.

Introduction

Health and well-being are among the most important elements for mankind. Healthcare is as important as other basic necessities like food, hygiene, education etc.  Besides providing direct benefits to the human society, the healthcare sector also provides a wide range of career opportunities. The healthcare sector is comprised of a large workforce and includes a wide range of job categories – diagnostics, preventive services, rehabilitation, and cure (therapeutics and treatment). Popular job profiles include healthcare providers, clinicians, basic & biomedical scientists, sales & marketing professionals, medical engineers etc.

Healthcare Sector in India

The healthcare sector comprises hospitals, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine, medical tourism, health insurance and medical equipment. The Indian healthcare sector is growing at a brisk pace due to its strengthening coverage, services and increasing expenditure by public as well private players. The Indian healthcare sector is growing at 15% CAGR. FDI investment in hospital and diagnostic centers from 200 to 2015 was $3.21 billion. According to IBEF, the Indian healthcare market was worth $100 billion in 2015. It is expected to reach $280 billion by 2020 (thanks to the digital adoption), thus clocking a CAGR of 22.9%. In terms of revenue and employment, the healthcare sector is now one of the largest sectors in India.

Biotechnology Industry in India

Within the healthcare sector, the biotechnology domain (or segment) is the most prominent one in terms of revenue and employment. Not only jobs in the public and private sector, there are enough opportunities for entrepreneurship as well. The biotechnology industry in India is the 3^rd largest in the Asia-Pacific region, and presents excellent career scopes in the near future.

Biotechnology Applications

The biotechnology segment is the fastest growing segment in India. It is valued about $11 billion currently and it will touch the $ 100 billion mark by 2025 as per the forecast of the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE). Furthermore, the biotech industry is expected to go up to USD 11.6 Billion by 2017 and it is expected to grow at 30% growth rate every year (Make In India website). The increased demand for healthcare services, R&D activities, clinical capabilities etc. provides scopes of huge number of job opportunities.

Major Segment of Biotechnology Industry in India

Major Segments of Biotechnology Industry in India (Source: IBEF)

The Indian biotechnology sector can be classified into 5 major sub-categories – bio-pharma, bio-services, bio-agriculture, bio-industry and bio-informatics. The bio-pharma segment deals in biopharmaceuticals that include drugs, proteins (peptide therapeutics), and antibodies. This segment primarily deals in diagnostics and therapeutics. This segment can also be termed as the biomedical segment. Bio-services usually refer to the clinical trials, research and manufacturing contracts. The bio-agriculture segment deals with crops, food production and processing. This segment includes scientific research work on bio-pesticides, bio-fertilizers, and genetically modified seeds (and crops). The bio-industry segment covers the research work related to yeast-based, enzymes, organic amino acids etc. This segment also includes extensive work related to bio-fuels and food science and technology. The last segment, bio-informatics deals with bio-IT services, which covers computational biology, computational chemistry, genetic sequencing etc.

Top biotech and bio-pharmaceutical companies in India

• Biocon (Bangalore)
• Serum Institute of India (Pune)
• Panacea Biotec Ltd. (New Delhi)
• Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. (Hyderabad)
• Bharat Serum and Vaccines Ltd. (Mumbai)
• Indian Immunologicals Ltd. (Hyderabad, Rajkot, Ooty)
• Bharat Biotech International Ltd. (Hyderabad)
• Strand Life Sciences (Bangalore)
• Shantha Biotenics Ltd (Hyderabad)
• Monsanto Biotech (Mumbai)
• Advinus Therapeutics (Mumbai)
• Aurigene (Bangalore), Bharat Biotech (Bangalore)
• NxGenBio Life Sciences (New Delhi), Rasa Life Sciences (Pune)
• Novozymes (Bangalore)
• TCG Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd. (Kolkata)
• VClinBio (Chennai)

An extensive list of top biotech and bio-pharmaceutical companies in India can be found here.

Bio-Pharmaceutical Startup Ecosystem in India

Apart from the above companies, several startups are also coming up in the field of biotechnology. In the Indian startup ecosystems, fintech, e-commerce, data analytics, software, mobile-internet, edtech domains receive more limelight from the media and investors. But, the biotech startups are not lagging far behind. In the last 5 years, Indian biotech startups raised $2.8 billion (INR 18,700 Crore) in investments. Out of all startups, 57% are working in the Bio-pharma segment.

Before covering the hottest biotech startups in India, first we need to understand the challenges of the biotech sector in India.

Challenges of the Biotechnology & Bio-pharmaceutical Startups in India

People in India are not completely aware about the subject fields and the career opportunities of biotechnology. We still live in a society that is obsessed with engineering and medicine, where career paths in life sciences and biotechnology take the backseat. Another problem is that the biotechnology is field is not a career path where you can make fast money. So, many students (and parents) don’t feel encouraged to pursue the biotechnology field. Due to these reasons, the biotechnology sector does not always get the brightest brains. The biotechnology field is very challenging, and demands lot of hard work, patience, inquisitiveness, specialized skills and creativity.

Within the startup ecosystem, the biotech domain is by far the most challenging one. It takes almost a decade for a biotech or biopharmaceutical startup to launch a market-ready product. Venture capitals (VCs) are not always willing to wait that long before making an exit. VCs are not always ready to invest unless the product or device is ready (or almost ready) for the market. Time is a serious constraint in biotechnology and biomedical device spheres. Unlike software or technology domains where things can be fixed fast, one mistake in biotechnology can take you 18 – 24 months backwards.

Another factor is the requirement of huge amount of funds. It’s not like building an online platform that requires a laptop and Wi-Fi connection. You need a lab space, consumables, reagents, cell lines, animal models, equipment etc. So, the requirement of funds is also significantly higher for biotechnology startups.

According to data from Tracxn, around 120 startups have received $117 million so far in the biomedical space. That comes to about $1 million for every startup, which is small change for device manufacturing firms that have to make high investments into research and development.

Things can go wrong at any point of time. Biotechnology research and development is always like that only. Having a Plan B is also not feasible always as startups focus on only one product at a single time. Maybe this is something where the biotechnology entrepreneurs need to think about. Having a product pipeline can be advantageous.

Once the product is ready, getting international safety approvals (e.g. FDA) is also a lengthy process. The approvals can take 2 – 4 years. So, even when the product is ready, but not approved, you are not making any revenue. Most of the hospitals and clinics in India wait for these international approvals. The regulatory authorities in India are still not equipped to certify products and/or medical devices. Besdies, the Indian biotech startups also need to fight with heavily funded foreign counterparts, especially in those based out of US and Europe. This again put the biotechnology entrepreneurs at a disadvantage.

Another problem within the Indian biotech startup space is the lack of expertise in form of consulting and mentoring. There are not enough advisers within this domain, and hence getting funds is always an uphill task.

Due to all these reasons, investors usually shy away from the biotechnology domain because of the long gestation periods and market (and product) uncertainties. Consequently, biotechnology entrepreneurs find it difficult to raise funding.

Initiatives by the Indian Government and Private Bodies towards Biotech Innovation

Amidst all these challenges, there are many entrepreneurs and startups in the biotechnology space, which are doing exceedingly well. The Indian Government is also providing lot of support. In the last few years, Govt. initiatives like DBT, DST, CSIR and BIRAC are pumping generous amount of money within the biotechnology startup ecosystem. Besides, there are quite a few biotech startup incubators and accelerators are also being set up. The most prominent ones are listed below.

Top Biotechnology & Bio-Pharmaceutical Startup Incubators in India

• IKP Knowledge Park (Hyderabad)
• Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) at IIT-Delhi (New Delhi)
• Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) (Bangalore)
• NCL-Venture Center (Pune)
• Amity Innovation Incubator at Amity University (Noida)
• KIIT Technology Business Incubator at KIIT University (Bhuvaneswar)
• Technology Business Incubator at Anna University (Chennai)
• Technology Business Incubator UOH (Hyderabad)
• iHUB at CCMB (Hyderabad)
• Technopark TBI (Trivandrum)
• Technology Base Incubator Society (New Delhi)
• E-Health TBI (Bangalore)
• VIT Technology Business Incubator (Vellore)
• UOM TBI (Chennai)
• MITCON Bio-Pharma Technology Business Incubator (Pune)
• Ekta Incubation Center – WBUT (Kolkata)

Active Venture Capital (VC) Firms for Biotech Startups in India

In terms of funding, ventures like IDG Ventures, Accel Partners and Norwest Venture Partners are few active venture capital funds investing in the biotech startup space in India. Here is a comprehensive list of active venture capital firms in the Indian biotech space.

Venture Capital Scenario in the US Biotechnology Industry (2015)

Top Biotech & Bio-Pharmaceutical Startups in India

Stempeutics: It is a leading stem cell company developing stem cell based medicinal products. Stempeutics has developed first allogeneic stem cell therapy in India.

Perfint Healthcare: Perfint makes robotic devices to deliver cancer drugs directly to organs like the lungs or liver. Perfint is focus is on planning and targeting solutions for image guided interventional procedures – with an emphasis on oncology and pain.

Tricog: This is another game-changing and disrupting biotech startup. It used to take an average of six hours to diagnose a heart attack and get the right course of treatment started. By the time the patient is sent to a lab and then to another hospital to have the report read, the chances of survival typically reduced to 20%. The likelihood of surviving a heart attack is over 80% if action is taken within the first 2 hours. While heart attacks can be detected by a quick and inexpensive test called an ECG, we continue to be victims of two critical setbacks. Firstly, most primary care clinics are not equipped with ECG machines owing to their high cost and complex nature. Secondly, a lot of the primary care doctors do not receive sufficient training in ECG interpretation. Here comes Tricog.

Tricog uses technology to help patients gain access to quick, accurate and affordable diagnosis, which can lead to significant mortality reduction. It aims to change the 80% chance that a heart attack will take your life to an 80% chance that you will survive.

Tricog ECG devices are strategically located at local clinics help doctors detect heart complications within minutes of your arrival. The devices are cloud-connected and accessed only by trained expert doctors. Within minutes of collecting the ECG results, the diagnosis is shared with both the patient and the doctor in real-time. The system is designed to additionally enable continuity of care at a tertiary center when required.

Purius Nanosystems: It is a healthcare diagnostics company that develops an integrated molecular diagnostic system for performing complex DNA/RNA/Protein testing. It provides a fully automated system that enables healthcare personnel to perform ‘sample-to-result’ or “Sample In – Sample Out” tests at the point-of-care and take appropriate medical decisions within an hour instead of waiting for days typical of current lab-based testing. The startup is very active in the fields of Medical devices, In-Vitro Diagnostics and Molecular Biology. Personally speaking, it is one of my favorites within this list (very similar to my interests and expertise during my biomedical research days).

Pandorum Technologies: A unique biotechnology startup, Pandorum Technologies is trying to take tissue engineering to the next level in India. Pandorum’s focus is on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. With its distinct synergy of life science, engineering and clinical competences, the company designs and manufactures three dimensional functional human tissues; intended for medical research and therapeutics. The company’s proprietary technology platform is being utilized to design and manufacture functional, 3D living human tissues for medical research and various other applications. It made India’s first 3D printed artificial human liver tissue.

Mapmygenome: It is a personal genomics and a molecular diagnostic company that tells all about the genetic predisposition of a person to check the risk of brain and cardiac diseases or DNA-based test to assess the risk of developing genetic cancers or molecular tests for tuberculosis or to assess the lifestyle diseases like diabetes, obesity, nicotine addiction or newborn screening or overall health prediction and guides them to get the most suitable therapy and health maintaining options. The basic objective is to make people proactive about their health.

Xcode Life Sciences: It is one of the first bioinformatics companies of India providing personalized healthcare by genetic testing and offers nutritional recommendation according to individual genetic profile. It is India’s first company to launch DNA-based anti-aging skincare program for women known as “Come Alive”. Xcode has been a pioneer in personal genomics, specializing in preventative healthcare.

Theramyt Novobiologics: Theramyt Novobiologics is a niche Biosimilar to Biobetter development enterprise focused on combining drug designing with platform technologies, to generate unique product lines in oncology, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and other metabolic disorders.

 Swagene: A novel indigenous biotechnology startup, dedicated towards personalized medicine through molecular diagnostics. The company is working on the cancer tests based on the detection of genetic markers of the specific cancers at initial stage and in cases of relapse and the patient can be provided with the most suited, tailored therapy. The startup is also working on areas like hypothyroidism and other acute lifestyle disorders. Recently they launched personalized medicine for children with blood cancer.

Forus Health: The technology-aided healthcare startup focuses on preventive ophthalmic care. The startup helps in screening of common eye problems which can lead to blindness. It is simple, portable and rugged, and can be operated by a minimally trained technician.

Navya Biologicals: It deals with bioprocess and biologics. The company develops yeast cell line platform for expression of complex peptides and proteins, and mammalian expression cum continuous process platform. It’s technology platforms (YeXtreme & ItensiMAb)  brings together pathway engineering, custom media development and flexible high intensity manufacturing processes, enabling low cost production of high quality biologics. It offers NavAlbumin formulations and passive homing therapies for applications, including IVF, stem cell, and cell culture media for biopharmaceuticals production.

Zumutor Biologics: Zumutor works in the disease areas that are today’s concerns, in the segments of Oncology, Diabetes and Autoimmune Disorders. It develops therapeutics encompassing recombinant technology-based biosimilars to large antibody structures. The products are primarily in the area of immune-oncology. Besides, it also caters clients to avail cell line development, analytical method development and testing, protein characterization, process development, process characterization/scale down validation, and technology transfer services.

InterpretOmics: InterpretOmics is a bioinformatics focused Big Data startup which is working on cloud based software system for next-generation genomics data analysis and interpretation. It is a personal genomics company to provide health, fitness, nutrition, lifestyle and genealogy insights to lead a healthy lifestyle. InterpretOmics combination of systems biology, computational statistics, genomics, data sciences, network sciences and high-performance computing expertise coupled with its proprietary software iOMICS™ will provide dramatic improvements to accuracy, speed of data analysis and cost reduction in clinical research and patient management.

Yaathum Biotech: A molecular biotech company specializing in the development of Real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays for rapid and affordable diagnosis of disease and research in life sciences. Presently, developing a novel multiplex qPCR based diagnostic kit that would make possible the identification of full range of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR & XDR-TB) in a single test, at one third the present cost, and taking a few hours to test.

Sattva Medtech: Sattva is a medical diagnostics equipment startup working on next-generation fetal health monitoring devices to address perinatal deaths in India caused due to fetal distress and related complications .

Achira Labs: Achira is an innovative medical diagnostics startup which developed indigenous microfluidic, lab-on-chip platform to serve the clinical areas of thyroid disorders, fertility, diabetes and infectious disease. It is a big technological advancement in the Indian healthcare facilities. It launched India’s first microfluidics point-of-care medical diagnostics platforms and generates fast and accurate results at affordable prices.

LeadInvent: LeadInvent has developed a unique molecule simulation technology known as LIDiscover Engine which enables scientists to discover and develop novel patentable compounds for various therapeutic areas. LIDiscover Engine has been successfully utilized in over five drug discovery programs comprising oncology, infective diseases like tuberculosis and neural indications. The company provides in-silico research services in chemo-informatics and bioinformatics.

Ganit Labs: Another Bangalore-based startup, Ganit Labs, works towards prevention and cure of diseases through genomics application & informatics technology. The company is involved in the oral cancer genes’ mapping and their study. It uses analytical tools to ensure effective analyses.

Cardiac Design Labs: It is working in the similar space of Tricog. It provides efficient cardiac monitoring and diagnosis by deploying intelligent systems that enable automatic remote reporting that saves both time and cost.

Mitra Biotech: A Boston-based biotech startup, Mitra Biotech has got significant research and laboratory presence in Bangalore, India. Founded in 2010, the focus area of the company is personalized oncology treatment and supporting more effective and efficient cancer drug development.

I would also like to mention about two more startups. The first one is Axio Biosolutions. It has developed a bandage (Axiostat) that stops bleeding instantly when pressed to a wound. The second one is Aten, a BIG recipient, was attached to C-CAMP. Its first drug is targeted at Niemann-Pick Type C (NPC) disorder, or Childhood Alzheimer’s. There are not many bio-pharmaceutical startups who are working in the field of orphan diseases. But, Aten is one of them.

Future Scopes of Biotechnology & Bio-Pharmaceutical Industries in India

As you can see, despite several hurdles and roadblocks, the face of Indian biotechnology & biopharmaceutical industry is changing. The future does look promising. Hence, if you are passionate about and keen to pursue a career in this field, this is the timing cannot get any better. The Government is doing its part. The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) set-up by the Department of Biotechnology (Ministry of Science & Technology) has supported nearly 300 Start-up’s and SME”s and 150 young entrepreneurs for innovation, research and product development. The biotech startup scenario in India was transformed by BIRAC’s flagship schemes- BIG, SBIRI, BIPP, CRS and SPARSH which have resulted more than 30 Products, 20 Technologies, 16 Early Stage-Technologies,  2 Process Innovations, 40 IPs.

BIRAC – a Govt. of India initiative

Medtech Products (devices & diagnostics) supported by BIRAC that have been commercialized:

1. Fluorescence Reader for detection of multiple infections simultaneously by Designinnova in partnership with ICGEB
2. Fibroheal: facemasks for burn wound management by Healthline
3. Aina: to measure blood glucose/Hb/lipids/creatinine by Janacare
4. Laser system for photodynamic therapy for cancer by Vinvish Technologies
5. Rapid point of care diagnostic kit for malaria/dengue & typhoid by Bigtec
6. Maxio: device for tumour ablation/cancer treatment by Perfint
7. Oncoscan: digital oncopathology slide scanner with image view by Optra Systems
8. Immunodiagnostic Kit for autoimmune diseases by Amar Diagnostics
9. Malaria detection kit by Genomix Molecular Diagnostics
10. Autochem Ingenious: low cost chemical analyser by Span Diagnostics
11. Malaria diagnostic kit by Bhat Biotech

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Sources: IBEF, Make in India, Inc42, VCCircle, Business Standard, MyOnlineCA, IndianWeb2, Company Websites, YourStory, Times of India, Economic Times, DBT India, Medgenera.