Bioinformatics/Systems Biology Firms

Of Late I’ve been hearing gripes that there are no bioinformatics/systems biology companies and that within industry the only jobs you can hope for are within a progressive big pharma company or get back to academic research in one of the DBT, CSIR, DRDO Labs. There is also word going around about the level of frustration amongst the growing number of people who in pursuit of better opportunities and acceptance have undertook “specialized training/certification/degree” at substantial costs/expense. Recently some one appraised me of an interview with the CEO of GeneStruct, Keith Ellison who talked about tools, strategies and companies driving systems biology. He mentioned that this new paradigm of drug discovery follows any natural order, with early adopters, conservatives and laggards in the mix. He mentioned that lot of systems and pathway companies are often overlooked when thinking about bioinformatics industry.

Well, one of the causes of this frustration could be due to the fact that there exists a gap between what is taught in these courses and what the industry expects. The blame may lie on both the parties, one for not tailoring the programs with the industry view-point in mind and the other for not talking a realistic approach towards the NDDR/Bio-X processes, whilst expecting results in the short term.

Biotechnology in India

Biotechnology is at the threshold of tremendous growth and India is emerging as an important player in the global sector. The Indian biotechnology sector is limited when compared to the US and Europe, despite spanning several decades. However, India is making considerable investments in the sector through Government initiatives and venture capital funds. Since inception, Government has nurtured the country’s biotechnology sector. However, it is an industry still in its infancy. Currently India is making a considerable investment in both academics and the existing industry infrastructure to accelerate the sector's growth and contributions.
The current consumption of Biotech products in India is ~ over $2000 million, which is expected to grow up to the tune of $4K -$5K million by the end of year 2010. The Indian Bio-Pharma sector accounts roughly for 70% of the bulk Biotechnology sector, the Bio-Industrial, Bio-Services, Bio-Agri and Bio-IT approximately account for 13%, 7%, 6% and 4% respectively. As per my last interaction with a Director at the Department of Biotechnology, Gov. of India, the goal is to push revenue generation in the sector to US $ 5 billion and generate 1 million jobs by 2010. The government is also, promoting the establishment of biotechnology incubation centres within industrial parks. Some are already established like Marine Biotech Park in Chennai, Biotechnology Incubation Centre at Shapoorji Pallonji Biotech Park, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, Biotechnology Park at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh etc. Such parks are expected to be setup across the country.
Using a broad definition of ‘biotech' - which includes basic industries such as food processing to highly sophisticated ones such as recombinant medical therapies - the sector has >1000 companies. The pharmaceutical and human health industries constitute about 60% of the biotech sector, and continue to grow. Bio-Agriculture is the next largest component followed by Industrial Enzyme manufacturing, Bioinfomatics, and medical devices. Majority of Indian companies are not engaged in basic R&D or drug discovery, rather, they manufacture products for/of others, through the development of differentiated manufacturing processes. Some of the Indian IT companies are looking at leveraging the data mining and data warehousing businesses. The challenge is to convince biotech companies in the United States and Europe that it is safe to transmit their data to India.
Most Indian companies are private and we have witnessed limited IPO activity, of which more is expected in the coming years.
With a liberal industrial policy coupled with the large pool of scientific talent, world class IT industry, a vibrant Pharmaceutical sector, good growth in Agricultural sector, Foreign investments, increasing Biotech companies, expanding Biotech markets, extensive Clinical Researches, strong Bio-processing skills, the product patent regime and Government support both at the Central and the State levels, India is viewed as a potential location for manufacturing activities and high-level biotechnology research programs.

SC-06: November 2006 Tampa, Florida

SC06, is the premier international conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis

We landed at Tampa International Airport on 13th Nov. 2006 and headed for the largest Supercomputer conference in the world, SC-06 on the 14th. The doors to the SC|06 exhibition here in Tampa were opened on the 13th and we focused on evaluating latest HPC, networking, storage and analysis technologies on display. We have already met a couple of old-timers from the SGI/Cray supercomputer days in the 90's. These shows are part "homecomings" for many of us who've been in the scientific/technical computing world most of our lives.
We took a quick tour around the floor, and it's overwhelming as usual. As always, the most interesting booths are those from the national laboratories and universities showing their latest research projects in computational science. The exhibition is on a massive scale.

There is some cool technology on display such as linux supercomputing and visualization solutions from LNXI, FPGA computing solutions from Nallatech, personal supercomputing from Tyan, high resolution and 3D stereo visualization fron Cyviz, innovative cluster computer systems optimized from the silicon up from SiCortex.