Clinical research market may grow to $1.5bn by 2010

The clinical research market in India, which clocked $200 million in 2005, is expected to grow to $1.5 billion by the year 2010.

Stating this at a seminar on 'Nurturing entrepreneurship in biotechnology', a special session sponsored by TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), Anish Bhatnagar, vice-president, Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc, US, felt that the clinical research organisation (CRO) market in India matured significantly with the entry of indigenous players.

The second day of the session was held as part of BioAsia 2006 at the National Academy of Construction auditorium here on Friday. "India still focused on low-risk opportunities, and venture capitalists have many reasons for being averse to risk investment," Bhatnagar felt.

Sanjay Sehgal, East West Capital Partners of US, said, "Entrepreneurs expect too many miracles from venture capitalists."

He suggested that one should work jointly with the venture capitalist (VC).

The role of a VC is to provide expertise, work hard with an entrepreneur, do networking, bring more human capital, strengthen corporate governance, and above all establish confidence and provide cash, Sehgal said. In the same breath, he said that the VC could not play the game without a strong sense of community and not enough companies are out there to actually play.

Srinivas Akkaraju of JP Morgan Partners, US, and Krishan Karla of Bio Genix were the other speakers while Utkarsh Palnitkar of Ernst & Young, Hyderabad, was the moderator.