India's biotech industry "is well on its way" to become a five-billion dollar industry by this year end, Biocon CMD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said on Wednesday.
"We are well on track," Mazumdar-Shaw said during the inauguration of biotech event Bangalore India Bio-2010. The figures are in keeping with the forecast made a decade ago, she said.
The standalone BT sector was valued at 3 billion dollars in 2010 and it registered a growth of 20 per cent last fiscal. Along with ancillary industries, including data management and equipment manufacturing, the size of the BT industry was four billion dollars.
The ancillary industries witnessed a robust growth of 40 per cent, she said. She said climate change and clean energy were turning out to be huge opportunities for BT. India with its cost advantages, high delivery value, skilled and trained manpower, high market potential was turning into an attractive investment destination, she said.
Karnataka constitutes 50 per cent of the BT firms in India. Out of 380 BT companies, 198 are in Karnataka out of which 191 of them are in Bangalore, she said.
Karnataka had added 11 BT firms over the 12 months while the rest of India added 32 firms. The state attracted investments to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) in the last one year, including Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) by Kemwell Biopharma, Rs 550 crore (Rs 5.5 billion) by HP for a proposed green R&D centre for clean energy, Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion)from Bangalore Helix and Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) by Biocon.
