The Indian biotechnology sector is divided into five major segments — bio-pharma, bio-services, bio-agriculture, bio-industrial and bio-informatics. Besides, India’s biotech industry is the third largest in Asia-Pacific region and is on the cusp of entering a new era.
This has been possible due to increase in investments, outsourcing activities, exports and the government’s focus on the sector. Also, the country is able to produce a strong pool of scientists and engineers who are capable of developing cost-effective manufacturing capabilities. Moreover, concrete steps taken towards setting up of national research laboratories, centers of academic excellence and several other institutes in medical science , educational and training institutes offering degrees and diplomas in biotechnology, bio-informatics and biological sciences have given a boost to sector.
As per the statistics (from Make in India site), the sector’s market size is expected to go up to USD 11.6 Billion by 2017. This will take place due to a range of factors such as growing demand for healthcare services, intensive R&D activities and strong government initiatives, fast-developing clinical capabilities with the country becoming a popular destination for global companies for clinical trials, contract research and manufacturing activities. Furthermore, The Indian biotech industry is expected to grow at an average growth rate of around 30% a year and touch USD 100 Billion by 2025.
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In this article, we present you a list of major bio-tech startups in India:
Ganit Labs
Founded by Dr Binay Panda and Dr Vijay Chandru in 2010, Genomics Application and Informatics Technology Labs is a genome sequencing and translational genomics bio-IT centre.
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Ganit Labs is involved in studying genomes and mapping genes in oral cancer, besides looking for what coding errors cause a host of genetic disorders. It also creates analytical tools that enable effective analyses, mining and management of large volumes of genome data, mainly from genome sequencing of disease tissues like cancer.
GANIT labs is based out of Bangalore and is an independent, not-for-profit, government-funded, Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative between Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB) and Strand Life Sciences. Dr Binay is a senior executive at Strand Life Sciences and Dr Vijay is a former professor at Indian Institute of Sciences and CEO of Strand Life Sciences.
GANIT labs’s mandate is to ‘enhance skill development in the area of Bio-IT through research, entrepreneurship, training and core-lab activities’.
QTLomics
Founded by Dr. Raja Mugasimangalam in December 2013, QTLomics is a agri-genomics company.
‘QTLomics combines the power of traditional and Marker Assisted Breeding Programs with contemporary cutting edge genomic tools to catalyze the hybridization of desirable traits in the crop. We are committed to assist plant breeders in improving quality and productivity of crops and to bring the next generation plants’. (Source- website)
The parent company of the QTLomics is Genotypic (GTPL), a Genomics company. It was founded with an aim to use technology to bring about the change by focusing on agriculture and assist plant breeders in improving quality and productivity of crops.
Sea6 Energy
Founded by four IIT Madras alumni Nelson Vadassery, Sailaja Nori, Sowmya Balendiran, and Sayash Kumar with current chairman Shrikumar Suryanarayan in 2010, Sea6 Energy is involved in development of scalable solutions to enable energy independence for India.
The startup is developing technology to convert photosynthetic biomass including plants, grasses and algae in to fuels. This is being done with a vision to meet ever-growing commercial energy demand of the country and avoid any environmental degradation at same time.
It is currently being incubated by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms. It has developed patented technologies which can facilitate large-scale cultivation of selected sea plants.
Sea6 has launched its first technologically advanced crop yield enhancement product ‘Jingo’ and is being marketed by Mahindra through its distribution network.
Theramyt Novobiologics Pvt. Ltd
Founded by Sohang Chatterjee and Kavitha Iyer Rodrigues in 2013, Theramyt Novobiologics Pvt. Ltd is focused on biobetters and biosimilars and develops biobetters and NBEs while focusing on treatments for diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, metabolic disorders, oncology and cardiovascular diseases.
Startup has raised Rs.27.5 crores in funding from investors- Aarin Capital, Accel Partners, IDG Ventures and Karnataka state government-backed KITVEN in year 2013.
Prior to starting Theamyt, Sohang and Kavitha in 2007, they started biotech company Inbiopro, which developed and delivered biosimilars, therapeutic proteins and vaccines to pharmaceutical companies.
Tergene Biotech
Founded by Dr. Mosuvan Kuppusamy in 2010, Tergene Biotech is focused on developing affordable vaccines against infectious diseases based on the polysaccharide-carrier protein conjugate platform. Tergene is also working on the development of therapeutic vaccines against antibiotic resistance, cancer and allergy.
Tergene’s Vision is to ‘deliver the best quality, cost-effective biologics to all categories of people’ with a mission to ‘improve the quality of life thus creating a healthier world’.
Tergene received its Initial funding support from Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). The capital was used for project to develop the multivalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV- 15) employing an innovative micro reactor based conjugation chemistry.
(Image Credits: bio-sciences.univ-amu.fr)
(Disclaimer: the list is based on the notable entities in various segments of biotech. It is not an exhaustive list and suggestions, in form of comments, are always welcome. The images and content are outsourced from respective website, as indicated.)
