May 21 2001
Source: Business Today
After getting $2 million in funding, the company will use It's bioinformatics expertise to work on the rice genome
- Koen Wentink, COO, Avestha Gengraine Technologies

Be aware though that biotech business models this time around are in a state of evolution. Consequently, VC money is still hard to come by, though VCs worldwide invested $700 million in bioinformatics companies in the last year. Genomics and proteomics require oodles of capital and patience. "Biotech is very different from infotech," confesses Wentink of Avesthagen. "Though we had impressive research credentials," says Wentink, "it took a year-and-a-half to get the $2 million in funding we required."

"There are few VC-backed success stories till date in biotech," says Subash Reddy, Vice-President (Incubation) of e4e Labs, a prominent Bangalore-based technology holding company. "The absence of successful entrepreneurs is a major hindrance. That is why biotech start-ups have to focus on solving a problem rather than try and build a technology." In that sense, the new age of proteomics is particularly well-suited to the world of start-ups and small, nimble companies doing niche work, more than genomics ever was. The Human Genome Project was a central clearing house and the decoding occurred under its auspices.

In the next decade, expect to see scientists frantically working away in hundreds of labs and small companies as, they attempt to map the interactions of human proteins. Since information on rice genome is available, it doesn't make much sense to sell this in the long run, say analysts. Biotech companies will now have to actually do the dirty work of developing drugs. So couldn't proteomics companies sell in formation about proteins to drug companies? They could, and are, but some believe this is a flawed, short-term approach. It should be tied in with drug development.

But with new drugs still five to 10 years away and each drug estimated to cost a billion dollars in development costs, don't expect too many to tread here immediately. The rush to proteomics is a less coordinated effort than the grand, one-of-its-kind genome project, but entirely in keeping with free-market it ethos of everyone-for-themselves. There will be a rash of contracting, subcontracting, collaboration, co-operation opportunities for the Indian IT, biotech, or bioinformatics company that chooses to seek them.