October 28, 2003
Source: The Times of India
Avestha bites the biopharma bullet

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [Thursday October 28, 2003
BANGALORE: Holding the ‘biotech-only’ placard for tool long can hurt. A bio-pharma slogan would be a better fit.

Biotech companies like Avestha Gengraine have decided to become bio-pharma outfits. “Biocon has achieved success through the bio-pharma route. We are convinced that we too can achieve similar results by adopting the same strategy.” Avestha’s CEO Villoo Morawala Patell told The Times of India on Monday.

“Becoming a biopharma company would yield good short-term results. Of course, biotech products would bring in bigger money. But till then, we will have to consider pharma products,” Patell said.

It is estimated that it would take another three years for Indian biotech companies to start delivering products. Profits are expected to flow in only then. What worries the biotech industry right now is the lack of cushioning in the intervening period. Biocon, in its new avatar as a biopharma company, has raked in half-yearly profits of Rs. 60 crore, while registering a turnover of Rs 225 crore. Its profits have come primarily from statins and enzymes, even as its research in biotechnology continues. Profits are expected to grow to Rs 130 crore by the end of this year; thanks to it’s dominating the Indian statin marker.

Biocon is also working on insulin and monoclonal anti-body segments.

Focus on values addition: Avestha Gengraine, whose mission is to improve productivity in agriculture and develop agrotechnologies, can now focus on value addition in food and pharma products the company had invested close to Rs 45 crore in the last three years.

An analyst with a financial institution, tracking the biotech sector, noted that the Indian biotech industry will ultimately deliver. “India has tremendous opportunities in the biotech manufacturing segment with low costs of project implementation,” he said.

The biopharma model will eventually spin off into the pure biotech model. But that will take time. Till such time more and more companies w ould to take the biopharma route.