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INTERVIEW

INDIA IS THE MARKET OF TOMORROW

Jacquie Berthe is the president of ORPHEME. Jacquie Berthe is a DVM and made his career in the pharmaceutical industry within Sanofi-Aventis. His core areas include drug safety evaluation, research programme in tropical diseases, international development in the Far East, international development in Japan, project direction in Japan. Jacquie Berthe is presently the Scientific Director of Montpellier sanofi-aventis research centre. Leading the French delegation for the BangaloreBio2008, Jacquie Berthe shares ORPHEME's objectives in an exclusive interview with Kishore Srirambhatla.

TPR: What brings you to India?
Jacquie Berthe: I am in-charge of Competition business cluster in India. We have five clusters. I am president of my cluster ORPHEME. My cluster is coordinating small companies. We have six companies and our mission is to come to India and know more about Indian market, Indian industry and Indian research and to see what are the potential partnerships within the reach of our companies particularly the small ones. We have small companies making the presentations on what they are looking for in India.

TPR: What are the core areas you are focusing with respect to the Indian market?
Jacquie Berthe: Our main focus is on biotechnology. We focus mainly on vaccines, protein engineering, genetics, biomarkers, pathology, surgery and medical devices.

TPR: How do you look at the Indian biotech industry in terms of partnerships and collaborations?
Jacquie Berthe: We have come here to have an idea of Indian biotech industry. This is a four-day mission. On day one we were at Delhi and the second day we visited Hyderabad and the remaining two days we are at Bangalore Bio. We visited seven companies that include Biocon and Avasthagen in Bangaluru and Shantha Biotechnics in Hyderabad. Once we go back, we seek detailed information and take it forward.

TPR: What kind of support the French Government is providing to your small and medium biotech companies?
Jacquie Berthe: The French Government is supporting the small and medium enterprises in a big way. For example, the ministry is paying 60% of the expenses on this particular trip to India.

TPR: What impressions are you carrying back home after this four-day mission?
Jacquie Berthe: Our companies have interacted with some companies in Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangaluru. Once they are back in France, they will carry out a detailed market survey. We have started the process for them. The companies will take care of the business execution. If need be they may visit India again to finalise the deals.

TPR: Are you looking for collaborations with Indian academic institutions? Have you identified any Indian institutions for research and development collaboration?
Jacquie Berthe: We are looking for partnerships in two fields. One is the academic institutions and the other one is companies. The focus areas are technology and labour of excellence. If we find a good technology and a good team we will be definitely interested. We have visited the ICICI knowledge Park in Hyderabad.

TPR: What are your observations about Indian biotech market?
Jacquie Berthe: India is a growing market. For us, it is an interesting market because it is the market of today and it is the market of tomorrow. There is potential for more vaccines, antibiotics, more drugs for brain and cardiovascular diseases.

INDUSTRY IN INDIA IS REAL AND IT IS GROWING

Aus Biotech is Australia's biotechnology industry organisation, which represents over 2,400 members, covering the human health, agricultural, medical device, bioinformatics, environmental and industrial sectors in biotechnology. AusBiotech is dedicated to the development, growth and prosperity of the Australian Biotechnology Industry, by providing initiatives to drive sustainability and growth, outreach and access to markets, and representation and support for members nationally and around the world. AusBiotech has representation in each Australian state providing a national network to support members and promote the commercialisation of Australian bioscience in the national and international marketplaces.

Aus Biotech's membership base includes biotechnology companies, ranging from start-ups to mature multinationals, research institutes and universities, specialist service professionals, corporate, institutional, individual and student members from Australia and overseas.
AusBiotech's mission is to cultivate a supportive environment to enable companies to grow and advance their commercial interests and assist them to become global, thereby positioning Australia's biotechnology industry as a significant market for attracting international interest and investment. AusBiotech is the secretariat to the Asia Pacific BioNet -a virtual network designed to increase interaction and connectivity between biotechnology companies in the Asia Pacific region.

Glenn Cross, Chief Operations Officer, Aus Biotech, takes care of New Business Development and Finance Management. In an exclusive interview with Kishore Srirambhatla, Associate Editor of The Pharma Review, on the sidelines of BanagaloreBio2008, Glenn Cross speaks about Aus Biotech's focus on Indian biotechnology industry. Excerpts:

TPR: What is the purpose of your visit to India?
Glenn Cross: We have come to India to explore opportunities between Australia and India in biotechnology industry. We see the two emerging countries in biotechnology being India and China. We have closer proximity to both India and China than Europe and North America. In 5 to 10 years both the countries will be majors in biotechnology industries. We know the Asia-Pacific block is the third best in biotechnology and in the near future may be the second best.

TPR: Are you here to seek investments from India or the other way round?
Glenn Cross: Two-ways. We know that our research institutes have number of collaborations with Indian research institutes. University of Melbourne has eight. We went to Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad and they have collaborations with Queensland and Victorian Universities. At the research level there is already some collaboration and some Australian companies are doing clinical trials in India. Some companies have their biologics manufactured in India. At present it is mostly Australian companies and organizations coming to India. But we think that there is an opportunity for Indian companies in Australia for clinical trials and potential partnerships in research. For example, in tropical medicine and tropical diseases, Queensland research institutes have done lot of research. We see opportunities for Australian and Indian companies to work together in diagnostics in tropical medicine.

TPR: Tell us about this Australian delegation.
Glenn Cross: This is a small delegation. We have around 14 companies that include two biotech companies, a few universities and others working with Indian and Australian companies. We have come to Bio Bangaluru last year too. And what we are trying to do is invite Indian companies to come to Aus Biotech National Conference which will be held in Melbourne this year. So I was just talking to ABLE and they are trying to get some Indian companies to Australia. We have Indian companies coming to our conference for many years. Ranbaxy and Dr. Reddys have been visiting us. We want some other biotech companies and smaller ones to come to us.

TPR: How is the Australian government supporting the small and medium enterprises and biotech startups?
Glenn Cross: The Australian government offers a range of incentives. At first level they offer research funds for R&D. At next level, they offer early commercialization funds for concept and state governments also offer funds at the early commercialization stage. As you go further down the value chain, there is less direct incentives from the government and we tend to work with institutions and venture capitalists. There is also a fund setup by the Indian and Australian Central governments, for the Australia India Strategic Research Fund. (AISIA) administered from Delhi and Canberra. This is for early stage development involving an Indian collaborator and an Australian collaborator.

TPR: What is there on offer for Indian biotech companies to establish bases in Australia?
Glenn Cross: The Australian biotech industry, according to the annual global report by Ernst & Young, is the sixth largest in the world. You have already looked at opportunities in Canada, US, UK and France. Australia is the next major industry. We think there are many opportunities for Indian companies. First advantage is we have a common language and a common game like cricket. We are Commonwealth countries with a long heritage. We already have tens of thousands of Indian student studying science in Australia. We have some majority universities in the trade mission who offer courses in Biotechnology to Indian students. We see a close relationship developing over the years. The major advantage Australia can offer is sophisticated western health care system that enables you to do another level of clinical trials. We see India as an excellent area to do early clinical trials where you need large population. Australia is also a good place to develop quality standards to meet the regulatory requirements of USFDA and European authorities.

TPR: What do you consider as the core strengths of Indian biotech industry and academic institutions?
Glenn Cross: We see major opportunities in three areas. One is obviously bioprocessing where India already has an established bioprocessing industry. Australia at this stage is in small scale bioprocessing. We are capable of manufacturing for early stages of clinical trials. India offers an advantage for our companies for production scale. Another area is clinical trials. As India has emerged as a major financial hub, we are exploring the possibilities of Indian investments in Australia. I have been talking to financial institutions and the indications are that they may be interested in later stage companies. Australia has a lot of companies in later stage. We would encourage Indian investment companies to invest in later stage companies human therapeutics and medical device companies in Australia.

TPR: This is your second visit to India. What are the prospects you foresee?
Glenn Cross: We have visited Hyderabad and Bangaluru during this trip. We have interacted with a number of CEOs. We went to Genome Valley in Hyderabad and we talked to number of institutes and companies in Bangaluru and BioBangaluru. So the message we take back to the Ausstralian companies is that the industry in India is real and it is growing. The major North American and European drug companies are here in India and they are looking at India. They are doing research here in India. So we will tell our companies not to look at only North America which is competitive. As far as Biotechnology is concerned, India and China are the two countries Australian companies should look at in future.

TPR: Are you planning to visit China?
Glenn Cross: We are going to China in May. We are taking a mission to China. A number of Australian companies have collaborations in China at research level and also in clinical trials. China has the language issue which make it more difficult.

TPR: How is the response from the Indian government?
Glenn Cross: The Indian government and the Commonwealth government in Australia are keen on encouraging research in both the countries. The two governments have setup a fund to support research.

FABA: Promoting Biotechnology Successfully

Dr. B S Bajaj, the Secretary General of Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA) is an institution in himself.

Born on September 19, 1927, Dr. B S Bajaj did his M.Sc, Ph.D and FPSI. He was trained in use of radioactive isotypes and nuclear radiation in research at Oakridge, USA, Microbial Genetics and Microbial Physiology at University of Minnesota, USA, Research and Production of Antibiotics in Italy. He was engaged in research and development in the field of antibiotics, physiology of fungi and microbial genetics in different institutions. He has a total experience of nearly 50 years in the field of biotechnology, drugs and pharmaceuticals.

He is the Director, Otira Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd and Chairman, All India Biotech Association Southern Chapter, is also Director of Natco Pharma Ltd, Hyderabad, Pacific Hospitals Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad.

He is Member of Biotech Advisory Committee of Andhra Pradesh Government, Project Management Committee (PMC), Biotechnology Incubation Centre (BTIC) Project, Vice Chairman of Export Promotion Forum for Biotechnology, Govt of India.

He managed antibiotic plant of Indian Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Ltd (IDPL), Rishikesh as Chief Executive and was involved in setting up of new biotech plants and expansion of existing plants. His most outstanding achievement was setting up of a large capacity and the state-of-the-art automatic fermentation plant for production of Penicillin G and its derivatives at Vadodara for Torrent Gujarat Biotech Ltd. He was actively involved in transfer of technologies of different antibiotics from European companies to India. He published more than 75 papers in national and international journals. He guided several M Sc and PhD students in different universities. He was on the Board of Management of several companies and Research Advisory Committee of CSIR Laboratories.

Dr. B.S. Bajaj details FABA's contribution and the road ahead for Biotechnology in an exclusive interview with Kishore Srirambhatla of The Pharma Review. Excerpts:

TPR: Tell us about Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA)'s contribution in promoting Biotechnology?

Dr. B.S. Bajaj: The Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA) was launched during "BioAsia2005" conference on February 10, 2005 at Hyderabad, with its headquarters at Hyderabad, India. The Government of Andhra Pradesh extended and continues to extend full support to FABA's activities. The main objective of FABA is to promote biotechnology in Asian countries by pooling resources and expertise of each nation in Asia and thus to keep pace with the advances in the field of biotechnology by the developed world.

Now 17 countries Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, South Korea, China, Japan and Kazakhstan, are in the fold of FABA. We have chapters in all the member countries headed by the local chairperson. Dr. Anwar Nasim, Chairman, National Commission on Biotechnology, Pakistan is the president of FABA. FABA has organised international conferences in Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia and four BioAsia events in Hyderabad.

TPR: What is the focus of BioAsia 2008?
Dr. B.S. Bajaj: The focus of BioAsia2008 is business development. We conduct Bio-partnering meetings during the conference where we do matchmaking with the seekers of technology and provider of technology and know-how. They sit together, discuss and converge.

TPR: How is the response to BioAsia2008?
Dr. B.S. Bajaj: The response is very good. About 24 delegates are coming from Spain. A 15-member delegation from Iran, 25 members from Pakistan and 10 delegates from Germany will participate. Delegates from Malaysia, Australia, UK and USA have also confirmed their participation.

What are the highlights of BioAsia 2008?
The highlights of this year's BioAsia are the lectures by Nobel Laureates Sir Martin J Evans and Prof. Barry J Marshall. Sir Martin J Evan will speak on “Embryonic Stem Cells” and Prof. Barry J Marshall will be talking on “Helicobacter Pylori”. Sir Martin J Evan will be conferred this year's Genome Valley Excellence Award.

To encourage young scientists and students who are pursuing their studies and research in any of the areas of biotechnology and life sciences, BioAsia Innovation Award 2008 will be presented during BioAsia2008. The award shall have a citation and a cash award of Rs. One lakh. The award will be presented to the best innovation among the received proposals, which will be screened by a team of scientists. This contest is open to all the participants from all the member countries of FABA.

TPR: How do you look at FABA's progress?
Dr. B.S. Bajaj: Today FABA is an international brand and a recognised federation. People across the world know FABA's existence. We have signed a contract with European Federation of Biotechnology for promoting Biotech industry in India and Europe. Dr. M.K. Bhan, Secretary to Government of India, Department of Biotechnology and B.P. Acharya, IAS, C&MD APIIC are the patrons of FABA. Mr. Vivek Singhal, President, All India Biotech Association, New Delhi, is the advisor to FABA.

TPR: How do you visualize the progress of biotechnology in India?
Dr. B.S. Bajaj: The future core areas of biotechnology are Industrial Biotechnology, Medical Biotechnology and Agricultural Biotechnology. Healthcare is an important area where bigger breakthrough I foresee is stem cells. Several institutes like LV Prasad Eye Institute, Deccan Medical College, CCMB, and IISC, Bangalore are doing pioneering research in stem cells.
In agriculture sector, biotechnology is bound to play a major role in the future. We are heading towards a food crisis in our country though we were self sufficient for the last 15 years. The advanced research in biotechnology is certain to help the agriculture sector to avoid the food crisis.