Telangana govt eyes $100-billion life sciences, pharma industry

Hyderabad: The Telangana government is looking to leverage the life sciences and pharmaceutical sector to create a $100 billion industry in the coming decade. It plans to do so with initiatives such as the upcoming Hyderabad Pharma City--a 19,000 acre area catering to set up a value chain pharma industry, Genome Valley 2.0, a medical devices park, and the Biological Scale-up manufacturing facility (B-Hub).

With 800 plus pharma, biotech and medical technology companies in the state, Telangana already has a combined industry value of $50 billion. The state currently boasts of having one of the largest life sciences sector in Asia, accounting for 35-40% of the national pharma production. The Genome Valley near Hyderabad, one of Asia’s premium biotech and research and development hubs, is a case in point.

“Today, Hyderabad has emerged as the destination of choice for life sciences companies of all sizes given the extraordinary STEM (science, technology, engineering and management) talent pool, vibrant life sciences and technology ecosystem, presence of premier research institutes, availability of ready-to-occupy laboratory space and indeed, proactive government policies,” said Shakthi Nagappan, director, Life Sciences, government of Telangana.

Nagappan, who is also the CEO of Hyderabad Pharma City Ltd, government of Telangana, said a number of initiatives such as the Hyderabad Pharma City, Medical Devices Park, Genome Valley 2.0, etc have been rolled out to accelerate growth of the sector in the state. With about 200 life science companies under it, the Genome Valley boasts of having big names like Switzerland-based Ferring Pharmaceuticals, which is setting up a manufacturing facility there.

The clean manufacturing business district will see a Genome Valley 2.0 coming up in the future as part of the expansion. Similarly, the Telangana Medical Devices Park is also another major ambitious upcoming project, which will have a dedicated ecosystem spanning 270 acres for research & development and manufacturing of medical devices with best-in-class industrial amenities and infrastructure.

According to data provided by the state government, 19 companies have already signed up and are in the process of setting up shop in the Telangana Medical Devices Park. It is likely to house Asia's largest stent manufacturing facility, which is being set up by Sahajanand Medical Technologies. The government’s upcoming Pharma City project also aims to create the world’s largest integrated ecosystem in a 19,000-acre space, which will cater to create a complete value chain for the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr Prasanna Deshpande, deputy managing director, Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL), said the growing ecosystem for life sciences in Genome Valley has helped his company grow in the metro area of Hyderabad. “The planned Pharma city and Medical Devices Park will further strengthen Hyderabad's leadership in Life sciences at global level. We have established units manufacturing vaccines for human health and for animal health. During the current decade, IIL established a state-of-the-art vaccine manufacturing unit at Karakapatla, in Genome Valley,” he told Mint.

Recent marquee investors post the creation of Telangana (in 2014) in sectors like Ferring Pharma (Switzerland), Chemo (Spain), Jamp Pharma (Canada), etc, have only added fillip to the state’s plans to scale up operations.

“We are immensely proud of the global impact Hyderabad has been able to create globally in life sciences / healthcare – thanks to the ground-breaking work carried out by our companies. We remain committed to this sector,” said Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary (Industries, Commerce, and ITEC), government of Telangana. He added that the state hopes to double the ecosystem valuation to 100 billion dollars in the next 10 years and generate 4 lakh new jobs.