Hyderabad: Despite the widespread health and economic distress caused by Covid-19 pandemic, the life sciences sector in Telangana has responded with resilience and attracted investments to the tune of about Rs 3,700 crores in last one year with an employment potential for around 14,000 people.
“Our dream and vision of growing the life sciences industry to over $100 billion (by 2030) looks plausible and we remain committed to it,” said Telangana Industries Minister KT Rama Rao while inaugurating BioAsia 2021 on Monday.
The minister said, Genome Valley witnessed large pharmaceutical companies announcing their expansion plans. Sai Life Sciences, a contract research organisation, inaugurated its new Research & Development centre at Genome Valley with an investment of about Rs 400 crores. The sprawling campus will play a pivotal role in accelerating the discovery and development of new drugs.
Syngene’s campus in Genome Valley which was inaugurated during the last edition of BioAsia, saw the number of scientists doubling in a year from 100 to over 225 now. The company, which had leased a building last February, is rapidly growing to occupy their third building by mid-2021.
GVK Bio, another Hyderabad-based company focused on supporting global innovators, is also expanding rapidly and will be adding 600 new jobs this year in Hyderabad, which highlights the city’s scientific prowess.
Further, Granules India will invest about Rs 400 crores to set up a facility with capacity to manufacture 10 billion units of finished dosages that will generate employment for about 1,600 persons. And Laurus Labs is investing Rs 300 crores to set up a formulation facility in Genome Valley with a capacity of five billion units.
Switzerland-based Ferring Pharmaceuticals, which announced its entry into Genome Valley previously, started operations last year. Further, a Canadian company called Jamp Pharmaceutical had announced investment in Genome Valley in 2018 and their state-of-the-art facility in Genome Valley is nearing completion. They have aggressive growth plans in Hyderabad, and the minister said he is looking forward to inaugurating this facility next month.
“We also have the Indian Council for Medical Research establishing the country’s largest National Animal Resource facility for biomedical research in Genome Valley, which is also expected to be inaugurated soon,” KTR informed.
Continuing this momentum, the Government of Telangana signed a MoU with Cytiva on Monday to set up a biopharma scale up facility- B-Hub in Genome valley. “While there exist formidable capabilities in chemical drugs in the country, B-Hub will help Telangana and India in accelerating the growth of the biopharmaceutical sector. I am confident that Telangana will emerge the biopharmaceutical capital of India,” added the minister.
Medical devices
KTR said the medical devices sector is another area, which promises extraordinary growth opportunities for the State. The Medical Devices Park at Sultanpur continues to be the destination-of-choice and around 40 companies are establishing their manufacturing and R&D facilities.
Some of these companies have already started commercial production and many of them are lined up for commencement by end of this year. “With operationalisation of these units, I am confident that the landscape of the park will transform, and the park will become the hotbed for Medtech activities in the country,” he added.
Global medical devices major Medtronic had announced one of their biggest investments – $170 million- globally last year to establish its largest innovation and engineering centre in Hyderabad. The centre is ready and the facility is geared up for inauguration next month.
