Biotech sector crosses $4 bn: E&Y

Domestic biotech industry crossed the $4 billion-mark last fiscal, growing from around $3 billion in the previous fiscal, according to an Ernst & Young India report.

Vaccines, diagnostics and devices and personalised medicine are the key innovative growth areas for the domestic biotech sector, says 'Beyond borders: Global Biotechnology Report - 2011'.

The report notes that though the year has seen R&D funding increasingly become scarce for vast majority of firms globally, India's biotech sector is one of the fastest growing knowledge-based sectors with numerous comparative advantages in terms of R&D facilities, cost effectiveness and budding capability.

The domestic biotech industry has the potential to emerge significantly from the current levels, it added.

"While the biotech industry's aggregate performance improved in 2010, there is now a widening gap between large, established companies and those at earlier stage for whom access to capital continues to be difficult," Ernst & Young India Partner for life sciences practise Ajit Mahadevan said in a statement.

"The domestic biotech firms will need to adapt creatively to this environment by doing more with the funding that is available and by working from the earliest stages of development to demonstrate the potential value of their products to investors, payers and regulators," Mahadevan added.