INTERVIEW: The jewel in India's biotech crown

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw spoke with Melissa Trudinger about ways in which India and Australia can work together in biotech.

Indian biotechnology companies share a lot of the challenges that Australian companies have in gaining a foothold in the global biotechnology community, with a few extra challenges to boot. But the two countries would mutually benefit from working together, says Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CEO of India's largest biotechnology company Biocon.

Mazumdar-Shaw started Biocon 27 years ago, making industrial enzymes in her garage. Now the company has 1500 employees, and spans the gamut of R&D through to clinical research, with products on the market in the US, Europe and other countries.

The company is the jewel in the crown of India's biotechnology sector, which numbers some 250 companies and pulls in revenues of more than US$1 billion annually. Last year Biocon listed on the Indian stock exchange after an IPO that was 32 times over-subscribed. With a clinical focus on diabetes and oncology, the company is building up its capabilities across the board, targeting markets in the US and Europe as well as those closer to home.

"We happen to be based in India, but our marketing approach is global," Mazumdar-Shaw says. "Our biggest challenge is addressing the regulatory requirements for each country."

Partnerships

Mazumdar-Shaw believes India has a lot to offer potential partners in Australia, particularly when it comes to cost and speed of R&D and clinical research.

India's large tech base provides hefty human resources to tackle a problem at a far lower cost and quicker pace than Western countries, and its immense population makes enrolments in clinical trials a rapid process. In just one disease area -- diabetes -- India has over one quarter of the world's global diabetic population, making it a valuable resource for clinical trials addressing this and other diseases.

According to Mazumdar-Shaw, the Indian government has recognised the potential strengths of the industry and is streamlining regulatory requirements and providing incentives to start-up companies in order to bolster the sector's development.

"Our capabilities are building up quite fast ... US companies are taking advantage of this but Australian companies are not. It stretches the dollar a lot further," she says. "A lot of skills are being built up very rapidly in India now. For a small company in Australia looking to grow, partnering with an Indian company could be a good strategy."

However, Mazumdar-Shaw admits that for an Australian company looking for a partner, India is not likely to be the first country to spring to mind.

"Indian companies are way down the list of priorities," she says. "But I must be honest and admit that when we look for partnerships we also just look westwards to the US. We also need to look at Australia for partnership opportunities."

Although Biocon has had discussions with a number of Australian biopharma companies in the past, there are no partnerships in place at the present time. "I'm really keen to see how we can encourage partnerships between Australian and Indian companies," Mazumdar-Shaw says.

Perception issue

But Indian biotech's biggest hurdle is that of perception and Mazumdar-Shaw says a major focus of her keynote address at the upcoming AusBiotech 2005 national conference in Perth will be to enlighten delegates of what it can offer.

"Our weakness is a huge perception problem -- people are not aware of what is happening in India. They should take the time out to come and meet with Indian companies," she says. "I find that US companies are far more India-savvy than Australian companies, there is very little happening with Australian companies in India."

According to Mazumdar-Shaw, this is partly due to the Indian diaspora in the US, which has begun to flow back in the other direction as US-trained Indian scientists and business people return to India to put their experience to work.

That's a subject about which she knows a few things -- she studied brewing at Ballarat in the 1970s, and became a brewer at Australia's Carlton and United before returning home to become India's first female brew master.

"The Indian diaspora has a very important role to play, and I'm not sure if it has played much of a role in Australian biotech at this point," she says. "This compares with the IT sector where it has had a huge profile. Biotech needs to do the same."

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw will open the AusBiotech 2005 national conference in Perth on Monday, November 21