Hyderabad- The Genome Valley

The pharma capital of South India, Hyderabad, has extended its presence strongly into biotechnology in recent years. The city is leveraging its inherent strengths in the pharma and thanks to the presence of some of the country’s leading biotechnology research centers, Hyderabad is all set to become the Genome Valley of the country. In fact, in the suburbs of Hyderabad, India’s first exclusive Genome Valley, housing leading biotechnology companies, has come up.

Hyderabad has yet another feather in its cap. The nation’s first exclusive biotech venture fund ( APIDC-VCL) with an initial corpus of Rs 40 crore has been launched in May 2003 by the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation. "The big picture of biotechnology is emerging. Things are falling into place now," said Andhra Pradesh government’s secretary, industry, B P Acharya.

Hyderabad’s core strength is the presence of some of the nation’s top pharmaceutical companies like Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Gland Pharma and Natco Pharma. The country’s top two hepatitis B vaccine makers, Shantha Biotechnics and Bharat Biotech were founded in the city in the late 1990s. Ocimum Biosolutions, Biogenus, Medgene Biotech, Microbax, Disha Biotech, Indian Immunologicals, Transgene Bioteck are among the other fast growing biotech companies which have started operations in the state capital in recent years.

Hyderabad boasts of some of the country’s top biotech research centers. These are the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) and Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), both part of the CSIR chain of laboratories. The School of Life Science of the University of Hyderabad is another globally known institution which is working in cutting edge areas of genetics. L V Prasad Eye Research Institute and the Center for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics are acclaimed research centers in the city. Apollo Hospitals is taking up clinical trials of drugs in a big way. The other leading research institutions in Hyderabad are the Bhagwan Mahavir Medical Research Center, Center for Liver Research and Diagnostics,

ICICI Knowledge Park

Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, department of microbiology of Osmania University, Institute of Genetics. The southern chapter of the All India Biotech Association is also based in Hyderabad.

ICICI Knowledge Park in the Genome Valley is a pride of Hyderabad and the center piece of the Genome Valley. The Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park is also coming up next to it and is attracting a large number of biotech companies. A Rs 30-crore incubator with all the infrastructure facilities and sophisticated instruments required for biotech research will also come up in the park. To facilitate cutting edge research, the Indian Council of Medical Research is setting up an Animal Test Facility as part of the National Bio Resources Research Institute. " It will be the city’s USP for biotech companies," added Acharya.

Chennai - The Bio Valley

Chennai has been an early adopter of biotechnology. Chennai’s biotech showpiece, the Rs 62.5 crore Ticel Bio Park Limited, in collaboration with Cornell University, was inaugurated last April. Its wet labs are equipped with the latest equipment to facilitate top quality research in fermentation & microbiology, molecular biology, plant tissue culture, downstream processing and analysis. Besides the park will also feature - Customized Lab Facility, Greenhouse Facility and Training Center. The Park is expected to become operational by January 2004.

While inaugurating the Ticel (TIDCO Center for Life Sciences) park, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said that her Government would soon set up a Marine Biotechnology Park at Mamallapuram with an investment of Rs 50 crore, to offer unique incubating facilities for commercial exploitation in pharmaceuticals, food supplements and cosmetics.

The Golden Jublee Biotech Park for Women Society set up on the outskirts of Chennai is the first Park in India exclusively for women entrepreneurs in biotechnology. The park, which was commercialized in May 2001 offers centralized support services to a series of biotechnology, based activities by women. "The biotech enterprises are more in the lower end of the

 spectrum with project sizes from a few lakh to a couple of crore. We are enterprises in the area of cosmetics, bio fertilizers, herbal spices, aqua ornamentals, food research etc. Our

 future plan includes a bio-informatics center and incubation center," said Dr Sucharita Kumar, CEO, Biotech Park for Women. Promoted by the DBT and the state government,the technical support is being extended by MS Swaminathan Research Foundation.

Besides the Marine Biotechnology Park, the state plans to start centers like Medicinal Plants Biotechnology Park and the Bioinformatics and Genomics Centre (BGC).

MSSRF- the magnet for biotech

Chennai can boast of yet another organization - MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, which was established at a time when human kind started facing serious ecological and social problems. The foundation was started by world famous geneticist M S Swaminathan.

MSSRF has accorded the highest priority to the application of frontier technologies for enhancing food and livelihood security of the coastal farming and fishing communities. The biotechnology program at the MSSRF focuses on conservation, sustainable utilization and enhancement of the vital bio-resources in the coastal region. MSSRF was the first to propose the concept that mangroves can be invaluable donors of breeding crop genotypes adapted to coastal salinity through recombinant DNA technology. Efforts for identification of unique genes in mangroves have also been undertaken using large-scale genome sequencing and differential expression analysis. As many as 2000 partial gene sequences from mangroves have been deposited in worldwide databases.

The Center for Biotechnology (CBT) at Anna University, established in 1987 is a pride of Tamil Nadu by being the first of its kind institutes being set up in India. The B-Tech(Industrial Biotechnology) program evolved in 1991 is again the first of its kind in India. The R&D facility established here is to the tune of Rs 15 crore and has high-end infrastructure to cater to the industrial needs, said Prof Arun Balakrishnan, Director - Center for Biotechnology, Anna University.

The center has facilities to conduct research in bioprocess technology, mMolecular biology, cell biology and immunology."In future we plan to convert CBT into a Contract Research Organization (CRO) with GMP for product development. Further we intend to span its collaborative activities with industry to convert basic research into technology and attract more and more young entrepreneur’s to use facility for business incubation," said Balakrishnan.

The deparment of biotechnology at Madurai Kamaraj Univeristy in the southern city of Madurai is a nationally acclaimed research centers. It is among the handful of universities which has been running an M.Tech( biotech) program for over a decade. The bioinformatics candidates from this institution are lapped by the industry in a big way.

CLRI (Central Leather Research Institute), run by the CSIR, has been in the forefront in the development of technologies for leather sector. Headquartered in Chennai, CLRI caters to the leather industry in the pre-tanning and post-tanning areas. "In biotechnology, research work is carried out on the use of microbial enzyme technology. In the leather industry, the major problem is caused because of the use of sodium sulphide and lime in the pre-tanning operations. Sodium sulphide is highly toxic and causes major problem to workers in this industry. Use of slime creates sludge problem. To obviate these problems efforts are underway to develop enzymatic products from microbes to fully replace sodium sulphide and lime," said Dr R Puvanakrishnan, deputy director & head, department of Biotechnology, CLRI.

There is a bunch of private players in Tamil Nadu who too are tapping the bio-resources of the State. Shantha Marine has notched up a turnover of Rs 6 crore in its first year of operations and on the basis of its current orders "and we hope to achieve around Rs 15 crore during the current year. "With our planned foray into the international markets this is expected to double," said KO Isaac, MD, Shantha Marine Biotech. Working with microbial metabolites sourced from the oceans is its focus area. This involves constantly isolating new strains from various coastal environments, coral reefs, mangroves and the ocean floor in pursuit of better producers of targeted metabolites.

"Considering that these strains are wild, these need to be changed so that culture, growth and metabolite characteristics conform to requirements of a commercial scale production cycle and feasibility. This is much like attempting to start a dairy farm with a wild cow," added Isaac. In addition, the company also works with the concept of creating ‘biological reactors’ with its organisms whereby genetic material for the production of an altogether new ‘metabolite’ is inserted into the organisms so that it can produce the targeted metabolite at a significantly cheaper cost.

Amrutanjan, based out of Chennai is making a strong impact in the biotechnology space. In biotechnology the company is focusing in the cloning and expression of recombinant therapeutic protein. As part of the expansion into biotech research, it is constructing a biotech R&D unit. The unit will have a facility for protein downstream processing, work related to molecular biology, tissue culture, mammalian cell culture etc.

UK-based Amersham Biosciences, a world leader in developing systems and solutions for disease research, drug discovery, drug development, and drug manufacture has its Indian head office in Chennai. Similarly there are players like EID Parry, JK Pharmachem, Mediclone Biotech Ltd, Malladi Research Center, SPIC, Brainwave, Eppendorf, Micro Devices Metrohm, to name a few , making a mark in biotechnology.

Nisha Kurien (CNS)

Bangalore - The Biotech-friendly City

The nation’s largest bio-cluster is located in Bangalore, the Silicon City. With nearly 80 companies and 8,000 biotechnology professionals, the Garden City is one of the leaders n biotech. The city is the home to the country’s largest biotech company, Biocon, several research centers run by multinational companies and some of the country’s top biotech research institutions.

The industry has been attracted to the city mainly due to the availability of talented human resources. Over 32,000 students are pursuing biotech related courses in over 400 colleges affiliated to Bangalore University. The other magnets are the presence of the Indian Institute of Science ( IISc), one of the most prestigious research centers in the country. The National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS) of the Mumbai-based Tata Institute of Fundamental Research was set up in 1991 in the Garden City. And it is yet another attraction for biotech professionals.

Two other research centers, the University of Agricultural Sciences and the Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced Scientific Research are home to some of the country’s leading biotech researchers. Other institutions like the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Center for Human Genetics, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education and the Central Food Technology Research Institute in Mysore ( 130 km from Bangalore) contribute a lot to the city’s biotech profile

AstraZeneca’s $ 40 million ( Rs 185-crore) research center based in the city has the mandate to conduct research on cutting edge areas in biotechnology, especially in the health sector. The world’s second largest seed company, Monsanto’s research center in India is based in the IISc campus. So is the research center of another top seed company, Nunhems Seeds, which is developing a number of transgenic vegetable seeds.

After Biocon, which was set up in 1979, a large number of biotech companies have come up in the city, especially in the last five years. The leading organizations are: Gangagen, Strand Genomics, Bigtec, Kshema , CDC, Linux, Molecular Connections, Avesthagen, Metahelix, Advanta, Syngene, Aurigene, Genotypic Technology, Bangalore Genei, Animal Biotech, Lotus Labs, Millipore, Wipro Life Sciences, ClinTec.

Since 2001, the state’s Vision Group on Biotechnology has organized an annual event , Bangalore Bio 2003, which is currently the nation’s largest biotechnology show. A biotechnology park is coming up in the city adjoining the Electronics City.

Kerala - The Herbal Valley

1The God’s Own Country, buoyed by the global attention as a tourist hot spot, is making a splash into the biotech arena on the back of its strengths in the traditional medicine system Ayurveda and its rich biodiversity.

Kerala is one of the 12 designated global biodiversity hotspots. The tropical climate is conducive for the proliferation of a wide spectrum of bio-resources. Over 700 species of flora and fauna can be found per sq km, and a wide variety of aquatic species can be found in the State’s territorial waters.

The state is the clear leader in traditional Ayurvedic medicine and in the application of medicinal and aromatic plants/ spices. Institutions such as the Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala, in addition to several other venerable institutions, represent a unique competitive advantage to Kerala in terms of the repository of knowledge, clinical practice, manufacturing practice and presence of a distributed supply chain mechanism for inputs as well as outputs relating to the medicinal plants sector. The largest number of training institutions for Ayurveda, the largest number of Ayurvedic doctors amongst states, the largest number of Ayurvedic clinics/hospitals, etc. are in Kerala

An Agricultural Export Zone focussed exclusively on the cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants is proposed to be created around 7 districts of central Kerala. A Herbal Biovalley has been notified extending between the Silent Valley Bio-reserve and Wayanad Hill Range. Some 54 percent of the world’s volume of spice exports comes from India and the majority share is from Kerala.

In addition, premier research institutions such as the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB), Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI), Regional Research Laboratory (RRL), Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), Indian Institute of Spice Research (IISR) are involved in cutting edge areas of medical and agro-based biotechnology research. Further, premier institutions such as the Central Marine Fisheries Institute (CMFRI) and Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) are premier national institutes that shall support marine BT based industry.

Academic institutions like Kerala Agricultural University, Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Calicut University bring out trained and specialized manpower in the areas of agriculture, medicine and biotechnology. The state has also increased the number of professional colleges and allowed private participation in professional education.

Companies like Synthetic Chemicals, Marico and Arjun Extract, Nagarjuna Extracts, etc are some of the leading names in the biotech sector. The annual turnover of the Ayurveda clinics are estimated in the region of  Rs 500 crore. The spices exports from the state is around Rs 600 crore.

Kerala has the highest ratio of Ph.Ds to total population of the region, in the entire world, as well as the highest density of S&T personnel in the country.

The Future

"Kerala is positioning itself for leadership in the phytopharmaceutical space, as well as the functional foods, functional supplements space," informed Rajiv Vasudevan, Officer on Special Duty for biotechnology in the state government.

The state is devising a long term plan that focuses on creating a unique enabling environment for BT industry in the areas of offshore/contract research and offshore/contract manufacture of synthetic drugs as well biopharmaceuticals. This is predicated upon the quality of its knowledge workers, scientists, as well as general population.

Vasudevan said an ‘Office for Technology Transfer’ has been set up to facilitate and promote industry-research institution collaboration. Further, a unique incubator-led strategy is expected to be implemented within the next two months to allow biotech companies to have a minimum cost of entry and thereby minimise their risk. The incubator will proovide technical consultancy, technology incubation as well as business incubation services. Separate incubators are envisaged for the phytopharma space as well as that for the mainstream biotechnology space.