Life sciences to boost industry in Telangana

The vision for industrialisation is fast transforming from ‘Research to Innovation; Innovation to Industry; Industry to Prosperity.’ And Telangana is no different. The State has identified life sciences including bulk drugs, formulations, vaccines, nutraceuticals, biological, incubation centers, R&D facilities, and medical equipment as prominent sectors for industrial growth.

The new Industrial Policy launched last month by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has mandated that for each of the core sectors, a sector-specific policy would be brought out. Soon, the State government brought out a sector-specific policy – Life Sciences Policy – to ensure that the State maintains its leadership status in the sector by optimally utilizing all the new opportunities.

According to the industry statistics, the Indian healthcare sector had tripled its size in the last one decade from $20 billion in 2002 to $70 billion in 2013, while the share of pharmaceutical market was about $18 billion. As per the estimates, the market size is expected to touch $45 billion by the year 2020, and India will become one among the top six markets in size by 2020.

Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) report reveals that India’s Biotechnology and Healthcare sector could reach $100 billion by 2025. Telangana is now emerging as a leading player in segments like bulk drugs, vaccines and formulations and attracting huge investments and scientific talent from the global pool thus taking full advantage of its strong research base.

Status of Hyderabad in pharma sector

The growth rate of life sciences in the Hyderabad cluster has achieved a CAGR of 13.5 per cent and exports registered a growth of 17.3 per cent since 2010. The performance is not surprising, as Hyderabad is part of Telangana, and has advantages over the others.

Especially in the areas of clinical trials, the city has emerged as supreme even in the realm of one-to-one comparison with the Bangalore and Mumbai-Pune clusters.

Considered as a pharma hub for decades, Hyderabad has rich talent pool in the pharma and chemical area, thus enabling seamless forward and backward linkages for product development, clinical development and translational research. As industry puts it, the ecosystem for the pharma and bio-technology sector is the best in the country and has no parallel in the country.

The Genome Valley is the first and only systematically planned and developed cluster dedicated to life sciences. Global players like Lonza, Novartis, Mylan, DuPont, Sanofi, Merck and US Pharmacopeia have set their shops in the valley.

The manufacturing activity for life sciences segment commenced in 1960s, by establishing pharmaceutical PSU, Indian Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd (IDPL). Later the company turned sick, but the private enterprise took an initiative and expanded the sector into all branches, thus providing impetus to life sciences from chemicals to agriculture. In 1972, ICRISAT was established to undertake research in arid crops.

The other premier research institutions engaged in pharma and biotechnology areas include: Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Center for DNA Finger Printing and Diagnostics (CDFD), and the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) thus covering the entire ecosystem in the life sciences sphere.

Salient features in State’s policy

The State government has rolled out an ambitious programme to promote an entire range of Life Sciences including biotechnology, pharma, nutraceuticals and medical devices.

In order to enhance the competitiveness, the government came out with an appropriate policy to make Telangana State the most preferred destination for life sciences activities.

It targets new investments worth Rs 20,000 crore (approximately $3 billion) in the sector by 2020.

It proposes to capture 20 per cent share of a $100 billion market opportunity by 2025 with $13.5 billion share by 2020.

It targets exports to the tune Rs 50,000 crore by 2020

Creating an additional employment for 50,000 skilled workers

Medical Devices Park

The government is promoting a Medical Devices Park which is in its infant stage. India imported a large numbers of products to cater to the market size of $3 billion last year. According to industry estimates, the sector projects its growth to touch $11 billion by 2023. However, at present most of the products are being manufactured in the west and are being imported into India.

To capitalise on the big opportunity, the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh government had signed an MoU with internationally renowned Gangwon Techno Park (GWTP) from South Korea to set up a Medical Devices cluster. The Telangana government is planning to take it forward under the Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC). It has identified suitable land in Sultanpur in Medak district for setting up the park.

KVVV Charya