The biotechnology sector is predicted to grow much faster than the IT sector with the $344 million market poised for 35-40 per cent annual growth, says Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Biotechnology exports are also slated to go up by 70 per cent, according to an Assocham paper for discussion at a three-day Global Summit on 'Business of Biotechnology', which gets underway on March 21.

It says the number of companies in India is also expected to grow over 100 per cent every year till 2005. There are currently about 110 units in healthcare products, 140 units in agriculture and over 300 in the industrial and other biotech products.

Human health biotechnology products account for 60 per cent of the total market; agri-biotechnology and veterinary-biotechnology together account for 25 percent while medical devices, contract research and development, reagents and supplies constitute the remaining 15 percent, the paper says.

The drug discovery process will be even more accelerated, and new drugs entering the marketplace will be developed based on biologic cause or pathway of human disease, it says.

The borders between biotech and pharma are blurring each day as the pharma industry is poised for a paradigm shift towards the gene-based drug discovery.

The proteomics market is projected to grow nearly six-fold to $5.6 billion by 2006 from $963 million in 2000. The increase would be driven by a shift towards the analysis of proteomes following the discovery that the human genome contains fewer genes than originally predicted.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is growing exponentially and the market was worth $3.8 billion in 2000 and expected to touch $9 billion by 2005 and is poised to grow to an innovation-led $25 billion industry by 2010 with a market capitalization of almost $150 billion from the current $5 billion generic based drug industry.

India is expected to increase the area under Bt cotton cultivation significantly in 2003. The Indian yield in crops like oilseeds, cotton and pulses is 41 per cent, 28 per cent and 29 per cent of the yield in the top five exporters of these products. For tomatoes, the Indian yield is only 18 per cent of the yield in the top five exporting nations.

There is a huge potential for productivity improvement in a large number of crops.

The Indian seed market is one of the world's largest with the public sector companies enjoying a 41 per cent share and 33 per cent of the market is shared by large players like Advanta, Ajeet, Ankur, Indo American, Mahyco, Mahendra, Paras, Pioneer, Proagro and Syngenta.

The remaining 26 per cent is divided equally between medium-sized companies like Century Seeds, Unicorn Agrotech, Durga Seeds and Golden Seeds, and the unorganised sector.

UNI