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Biotech/Biopharma
at least 11 large new Indian drug companies engaged in sophisticated drug development and discovery
research. Most scientists in these companies were trained and educated in the U.S., particularly
in Silicon Valley, and most Indian entrepreneurs in the life sciences come from either
the Bay Area or New Jersey.
Many of the leading pharmaceutical companies in United States and Europe now conduct clinical
trials in India, which offers several compelling advantages: 40–60% of the cost in developed
countries, skilled medical professionals, a large pool of “drug naïve” patients or volunteer test
subjects who have not been subjected to previous treatments, a shorter recruitment cycle for engaging
clinical trial subjects, and quality IT infrastructure. Clinical data management is also
growing, due in part to India’s quality IT infrastructure and workforce.
Despite progress, intellectual property protection remains a concern. India’s 2005 reforms extended
to drug substances protection previously applied only to the drug manufacturing process.
But Indian courts have been emphatic in rejecting so-called “incremental innovations” that serve
to extend patent life. At the same time, a vibrant generics and compounds industry is constantly
looking for opportunities in patent lapses and loopholes—from a profit standpoint, but also
from a perspective (often shared by government) that developing countries should not be denied
access to new treatments because of price.
San Carlos-based Reametrix, a diagnostic development and reagent services company
with funding from Sequoia Capital, and Gangagen, a Palo Alto company producing
products for the prevention and treatment of bacterial infections, both have India bases
in Bangalore. Agilent also maintains a research center there.
Emeryville vaccine developer Chiron Corp.—now part of global major Novartis—
secured a 51% stake in a 2003 joint venture with Aventis Pharma to manufacture rabies
vaccines, it and announced plans to use India as a regional hub to supply them in other
markets. In 2004, it formed a strategic alliance with Panacea Biotec in Mumbai to develop breakthrough
vaccines for India, most notably Pentavalent, a single vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus,
whooping cough, Hepatitis-B, and H. Influenza type b.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), sensing potential, sent a 30-member delegation to
the industry’s BIO Convention in San Francisco in June 2004. The group presented at the event,
and later met with Genentech, Genencor, Chiron, Exelexis, Gilead Sciences, and Nektar
Therapeutics, as well as venture investors.
In September 2006, Gilead Sciences signed a deal with eight Indian generics companies—among
them Aurobindo Pharma, Medchem International, Matrix Laboratories,
and Ranbaxy Laboratories—licensing the rights to make, combine, and set market pricing
as they see fit for two HIV drugs, Emtriva and Viread, with Gilead receiving a 5 percent royalty.
Nektar Therapeutics, a San Carlos firm specializing in respiratory and pulmonary
pharmaceutical delivery systems—it is best known for Exubera, an inhaled diabetes
treatment it developed with Pfizer—announced in May 2007 its plan to build an R&D
center near Hyderabad on 15 acres provided by the Andhra Pradesh government. Nektar CEO
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