BIOTECHNOLOGY

Indian Biotech Industry

India, today, holds a small share of the global biotech market, but has all the capabilities to become a dominant player. The consumption of biotech products in India is expected to quadruple in the next decade. The human and animal segment of the industry alone is growing by at least 20%.

While India has been practicing conventional biotechnology for decades modern biotechnology is rather new to India. In 1997, the total biotech market in India was valued at $ 500 million. This grew to 1 billion in 1999 and is expected to grow to $ 4.5 billion by 2010. Human health biotech accounts for 60% of the total sales, while agro biotech and veterinary-biotech together account for 15% of the total revenue and medical devices, contract R&D and reagents and supplies constitute the remainder. There exist 800 companies, operating in all sectors of biotechnology, but there are only 25 companies that are working in the working in the modern biotech sectors.