News: Hyderabad may have Bangalored Bengaluru!

(DNA 19/02/2007) Hyderabad - Has Hyderabad finally snatched the biotech tag from neighbour and early starter Bangalore?

While much of the debate on the sidelines of the ongoing biotechnology event BioAsia 2007 here centred on the question, investment activity and assertions from officials suggest that the city of minars has made a mark in biotech scene.

If state government officials are to be believed biotech and life sciences-related investment of the order of Rs 3,000-4,000 crore is slated for the state in the coming years.

While multinational giants Dupont, Novartis and others have announced their investment plans for the city earlier, the latest to join the bandwagon are Biocon and ITC, who will be setting up research centres here.

Dupont had said earlier this month it will kick off research in the city with 100 scientists initially and Rs 100 crore investment, which can be ramped to Rs 500 crore over five years.

Novartis, too, will invest Rs 500 crore to set up a research and back office facility at Sultanpur to employ about 1,000 professionals within one year, the state government had said.

More significantly, Biocon Ltd, long seen as a Bangalore icon and a biotech pioneer in the country, said on Friday it would invest Rs 1,000 crore to set up a biopharma project at the Jawahar Pharma City, a special economic zone coming up near Visakhapatnam. Apart from this, the company will also set up a 10-acre campus in Hyderabad at the Biotech Park of the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Investment Corporation (APIIC).

In the city to attend BioAsia last week, Biocon chairperson and managing director Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw reportedly stressed the fact that Bangalore had little to offer to biotech companies now.

The interest in the city is evident from the fact that other multinationals like Merck and Eli Lilly have struck negotiations with local companies at BioAsia for possible research and outsourcing deals. “Companies like Eli Lilly and StemLife of Malaysia have signed letters of intent with local companies for research collaborations,” said Raveen Reddy, additional secretary and director of biotechnology, Andhra Pradesh.

While Eli Lilly has tied up with Suven Life Sciences for research in CNS (central nervous system) disorders, it has tied up with city-based life sciences R&D firm Ocimumbio Bio for developing a biochip. StemLife is looking to set up an adult stem cell bank in the city in association with the Indo-American Cancer Research Centre, he stated.

Another obvious indication of the city’s emergence as a biotech and R&D destination is the fact that the government and private biotech parks are fast running out of space and clamouring for more space.

“We have already run out of space at the park and are scouting around for at least 100 acres more to cater to demand from prospective tenants”, said S Dhawan, chief executive, of the Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park, which has been developed to cover an area of 300 acres in Hyderabad’s Genome Valley district, which itself is spread over 600 square kilometers.

The ICICI Knowledge Park spread over nearly 200 acres with a built up laboratory space of 84,000 square feet for incubating upcoming biotech units too is looking to add more built up space to accommodate more tenants.

Similarly, the two phases of the biotech park promoted by the state government totalling 250 acres too have run out of space and the administration is going in for a third phase. “We will make a 600-acre park with the third phase which is attracting big players,” said B P Acharya, vice-chairman and managing director of the AP Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC).

Already bestowed with institutions like the CCMB, CDFD, IICT, ICRISAT, Dr. Reddy’s Research Foundation (DRF), Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation, the Institute of Genetics and Hospital for Genetic Diseases, Hyderabad is fast emerging as a major attraction to companies not just from across Bangalore, but also overseas.

“Hyderabad has clearly emerged as the biotech capital of India today,” asserted Syed E Hasnain, vice chancellor of the Hyderabad Central University, which is home to the Life Sciences Institute, set up Dr Reddy’s Labs and others.

Andhra Pradesh is the first state to formulate a biotech policy, and this has definitely helped in this direction, he said. The city ranks clearly above Bangalore as the number one as far as Biotech research is concerned, he said.