Vaccine Discoveries Drive India’s Biotech Industry (India)

Executive Summary

India's biotechnology companies count on the vaccines end of their business to drive the rest of their work in developing therapeutics, diagnostics and other segments. The vaccines segment accounts for more than 70 percent of biotech work in the country, increasing at a rate of more than 30 percent a year, reaching the $3 billion mark by 2010. The biotechs rely heavily on public institutions to do early-stage research, such as producing cell lines, so the companies can focus on process and clinical development. That trend was begun by Shantha Biotechnic's work in developing a hepatitis B vaccine based on earlier work by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology. (Click here for more