Biotechnology exports up 47% in FY07

The Indian biotechnology industry grew by 30.9% during 2006-07 to reach Rs 8,541 crore and upped exports by a massive 47% to Rs 4,937 crore.

At the current exchange rate, the industry's topline works out to be $2 billion and exports $1.2 billion. This has given the industry the confidence to set a topline target of $5 billion for 2010.

For the second year running, Pune-based Serum Institute topped the league with revenues of Rs 951 crore, followed by the Bangalore-headquartered Biocon with Rs 823 crore and New Delhi-based Panacea Biotec with Rs 600 crore. The top three companies contribute 27% of the industry revenue. The figures are part of a survey by BioSpectrum and the Association of Biotechnology-Led Enterprises (ABLE) released here today.

In an industry hitherto dominated by biopharma, two bio-agriculture companies selling Bt cotton seeds - Rasi Seeds  with Rs 333 crore revenues and Hyderabad-based Nuziveedu Seeds with Rs 226 crore revenues - have come up to take the number four and five slots respectively.

Of the 325 biotech companies in the country, nearly 40% operate in the bio pharma sector, followed by bioservices (21%), bio agriculture (19%), bioinformatics (14%) and bio industrials (5%).

The bio pharma segment, accounting for over two-thirds of the industry, reported sales of Rs 5,973 crore, representing a growth of 27%. The bio services sector registered 53% growth, the bio agriculture sector grew by 55%, and the bioinformatics and bio industrial sectors by 21% and 5% respectively.

Home-grown companies led the biotech revenue sweepstakes, and for the first time in five years, the top five companies are all of Indian origin.