Waiting for Biotech

“The worldwide spend on the use of IT in the new hot area–bioinformatics –is likely to spiral upward. Casual estimates being thrown about are $20 billion in spend worldwide by 2007”

Shyam Malhotra

The convergence phenomenon is not limited to computers and

communications. There is yet another convergence happening between biology and

technology–leading to the emergence of biotechnology as the next wave of

scientific development. Not that technology has not been earlier used in

research. But the scale of recent developments and future plans indicate that

the next few years are going to see an accelerating growth in biotech and

applications related to it. Much of this growth would be dependent on extensive

use of computing technologies–leading therefore to an equivalent growth in the

spawn-off area of Bioinformatics.

IDC has estimated that the IT spending in biosciences will

cross $ 138 million ( Rs. 700 crores ) in India by the year 2005 with a CAGR

exceeding 10%. That opens up a new market for the growth of domestic infotech

companies if they are able to develop an understanding of the infotech needs in

biotechnology processes. These applications will span areas in which vast

volumes of data from disparate databases has to be mined, managed and analysed.

Parallelly there is a growth for the export segment also. The worldwide spend on

use of IT in this area–bioinformatics–is also likely to spiral upwards with

estimates of a $20-billion spend worldwide by 2007. Of this the US alone is

likely to account for almost $7 billion.

With its traditional base of trained manpower this opens up a

huge new field for Indian companies to grow in. To make this happen a

convergence of IT specialists, mathematicians, agricultural scientists, doctors

and many other specialists is required. Biotech area spans diverse fields that

include the study of the human body, drug research, healthcare, agricultural

research etc. and no single academic discipline is enough for the developments

that are taking place. Each of these areas needs huge amounts of data to be

gathered and analysed on basis of accepted and news algorithms. Consider the

data that just one area throws up–the Human Genome project. The human genome

found in every cell of a human consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes. These

chromosomes constitute the 3 billion letters of chemical code that specify the

blueprint of a human being. The project envisages the identification of all

30,000 human genes and making the data available on computers. This is expected

to help better mapping of 5000 known inherited diseases and formulation of drugs

to cure them.

Bioinformatics–the new mantra–is meant to make such tasks

a reality. It addresses issues like data acquisition, data management and

distribution game plans for biologically useful information. In simple language

it integrates biology and information technology to bring about new revolutions

in areas of healthcare.

Indian companies have been quick of the mark and have been

taking up positions for some time. Advanced Biochemical limited a Thane-based

company has tied up with Pacific Corporation of Korea to manufacture genetically

engineered industrial enzymes. Shantha Biotechnics a Hyderabad based company was

the first to produce a genetically engineered Hepatitis B vaccine in India. The

majors like Ranbaxy, Dr. Reddy and others have diverse R&D programs running

which will increasingly become more dependent on computational technologies.

There are many other examples. And the business opportunities for them are not

only global. The domestic market for biotech is also growing rapidly. From $500

million in 1997-98, this market is estimated to have grown to $2.5 billion in

2001. Agri-biotech, drugs, and vaccines–all have shown huge growth. CII

estimates that Rs 30 crore of venture capital has flowed into this industry.

This is felt to be very low accounting for less than 20% of the total funding

made in India. Obviously, far more inflow of VC funds is required. This opens up

opportunities for all sectors of the infotech industry. For vendors, there’s a

new market for hardware. SW companies can find growth in the new applications

that are coming up.

As an obvious corollary there is a growing need for trained

manpower in this area. The Bioinformatics Institute of India that offers a

Distance Learning Program on bioinformatics has a 400 percent growth target for

the year 2002-2002. It is looking at having 10,000 registrations in its program.

There are a few more courses available at a dozen odd universities. As

bioinformatics involves software development and implementation for storage and

analysis of a vast amount of biological data, the professionals in this field

are required to have programming and database skills along with an in depth

knowledge of biology. Career opportunities would include database design,

database management and computational analysis. Considering that India has a

large pool of scientific talent available at reasonable cost, a strong IT

skilled, English speaking population, huge bio-diversity and a large number of

research and development institutes, it would have a big role to play in the new

sunrise industry of Bioinformatics.

But are the preparations adequate? The usual debate of India

not wanting to miss this bus has started. And as usual the problems are also

similar–regulatory environment, speed of response, lack of proper intellectual

property protection etc.

The question is–what will be different this time around?

One thing is not different. Even as this industry starts

gaining momentum Cyber Media is launching a magazine to serve the information

needs of this area. When this magazine was launched 20 years ago the infotech

industry was in its infancy and people asked why does infotech need a magazine.

Will there be similar questions for biotech?

Shyam Malhotra



The author is Editor-in-Chief of Cyber Media, the publishers of Dataquest