Indian biotech industry growth dips 18 per cent amid recession

19 June 2009

The year-on-year (YoY) growth in the Indian biotech industry declined to 18 per cent from 34 per cent, the industry had achieved in 2007-08, amid global recession and slowdown in the domestic market.

According to the data presented at the Bangalore Bio 2009, India's premier biotech the industry grew to Rs12,137 crore from Rs10,274 crore, the previous fiscal, recording an increase of 18 per cent.

"Global recession impacted growth," said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairperson of biotech major Biocon, at the event.

The industry's exports touched Rs7,152 crore accounting for 60 per cent of the total revenue.

Sector-wise, the major earner was bio-pharma that contributed Rs7,883 crore to the total revenue while Bio-services weighed in at Rs2,062 crore and bio-agri segment contributed Rs1,494 crore.

City-wise, Bangalore continues to lead the rest of India in the biotech sector, but according to Masumdar-Shaw, though Bangalore continued to top the list with Rs2,500 crore revenue from the biotech sector, Pune was fast catching up with the tech hub.

In dollar terms, growth was flat YoY at $2.5 billion as rupee depreciated to Rs46.30 against the dollar on average in 2008-09 while exports grew 6 per cent in dollar terms to $1.5 billion.