India’s bio-economy grows 8 times in 8 years

New Delhi: India’s bio-economy has grown eight times in the last eight years under from USD10 billion in 2014 to over USD80 billion in 2022.

India’s Minister of State for Science & Technology, Jitendra Singh said biotech startups have grown 100 times in the last eight years from around 52 to over 5,300.

A total of 1,128 biotech startups were set up in 2021 alone, signalling the rapid growth of the sector in India. From a small investment of Rs 10 crore in bio-economy in 2014, the fund growth saw 400 times hike to Rs 4,200 crore in 2022, creating over 25,000 high-skilled jobs.

According to a study by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), three biotech startups are incorporated every day. India generated USD219 million of bio-economy daily.

The Indian bio-economy for 2021 (January-December 2021) is estimated at USD80.12 billion. The Bio Economy registered 14 per cent growth over 2020. Indian bio-economy is continued to nearly account for 2.6 per cent share of India’s GDP in 2021. India’s bio-economy continued to perform well during the pandemic years as the BioPharma segment responded to the vaccine and testing needs in India, the study stated.

Nearly a fifth of bio-economy has been due to the Covid-19 vaccination and testing drive. India saw about 1.45 billion doses administered till 2021. This is stupendous performance by any standards as India cleared the Covid-19 vaccines for emergency use only in January. India achieved administering 1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses mark in about nine months.

The rate of vaccinations is a new high and never seen before. India took nearly three decades to reach 1 billion TB vaccine and two decades to administer 1 billion polio vaccines, respectively. India and China were the only nations in the 1 billion doses club in 2021. India has done well in Covid-19 testing in terms of absolute numbers. India is the top ranked country in the world in testing and recorded half-a-billion (499 million) tests in 2021.

Covid- bio-economy was USD14.56 billion in 2021. Covid-19 vaccines accounted for USD8.7 billion in value, while testing accounted for USD5.9 billion. On an average each dose of Covid-19 vaccine created a conservative economic value of USD6, while each sample test is estimated at USD11. The Covid-19 segment is classic example of scaling up of manufacturing and efficiency of administration.

BioPharma still accounts for the largest share of the bio-economy. BioPharma accounted for 49 per cent share of the BioEconomy. The total economic contribution of this segment was estimated at USD39.4 billion.

Diagnostics accounted for 52.8 per cent share of the total BioPharma Market, while Therapeutics segment stood at 26 per cent.

The BioIndustrial segment’s contribution to the BioEconomy witnessed 202 per cent growth in 2021. The segment is estimated at USD10.27 billion.

The primary driver has the government’s decision to concentrate on renewable energy, especially blended fuels. The Biofuels contributed USD5.97 billion in value. The other important sub-segment of BioIndustrial, the enzymes market reached USD4.3 billion.

The country also saw increased activity of start-up registrations. The cumulative number of start-ups in 2021 was estimated at 5,365. About 1128 companies have registered in 2021. This is the highest number since year 2015. It means on an average 94 companies are being set up every month in the country or nearly three companies a day. The Indian BioEconomy has gained traction with the normal business and it is estimated that sector may witness 8-10 per cent growth in 2022.