If you were to walk into the laboratory of Tranzyme Inc in Birmingham, Alabama, more often than not you would be greeted by an intriguing sight. Not the biotech workspace itself. The laboratory is like any other, spread over a massive 12,000 sq ft of space and populated by a 15-member technical workforce. It is the people. Listen carefully and the occasional exchange of conversation between the technicians may be in Hindi, Cantonese or Mandarin. Yet another Asian link is the CEO and president, Vipin Garg.

Air hop to North Carolina and to its own biotech playpen-the Research Triangle Park. Fifth in the pecking order in terms of biotech potential in the US, it has at least five companies headed by Indian-Americans. In the other eastern state of Massachusetts, it is estimated that 50 of the 500-odd companies located in the Boston area are headed by Indian-Americans. And now enthused by the prospects of reaping cost advantages and tapping the vast scientific manpower, many of these companies are looking eastwards.

Biotechnology is seen by scientists and entrepreneurs alike as the next big thing with the potential to revolutionise the fields of agriculture, health and medicine and to influence industry. The promises are many: disease resistant and high-yield crops that could solve the world's food problems; new medicines and drug delivery systems to cure diseases and to prevent genetically inherited disorders; and new enzymes that make industrial production more efficient and cost effective. All this and more are driving the $50 billion (Rs 2,40,000 crore) global biotech industry towards an estimated $200 billion figure by 2010.

Diaspora

THE DRIVERS DINESH C. PATEL Seeks to set up a tissue bank in India Renowned for his pioneering BT company TheraTech Inc. His vSpring Capital earmarks 30% of its $120m corpus fund for bt investment. ANU SAAD Sees India as a potential investment destination Probably the only woman CEO of Indian origin, her firm Impath improves cancer treatment by providing patient-specific diagnostics. VIPIN GARG Plans a stem-cell research venture in India His firm Tranzyme focuses on post-genomic drug discovery for neurosensory diseases and sees India as an ideal manufacturing base for biotech drugs. KUMAR CHANDRASHEKARAN Keen to market India-made BT drugs in the US A chemical engineer from Berkeley now heads InSite Vision and is researching biotech applications for curing eye ailments.

India's share at $2.5 million (Rs 12 crore) is negligible. However, it is expected to jump to $4.5 billion in the next decade. With a well-educated, highly skilled, English-speaking workforce that can give quality results at lower costs and a formidable reputation in it, India is in a vantage position. And it is racing neck and neck with China and South Korea in this arena.

Also with the unravelling of the human genome last year, research is throwing up an immense amount of biochemical data. There are about 20,000 publications explaining the various elements of the Protein Kinase C (PKC) enzyme. Collating that data-which has led to a new interdisciplinary subject called bioinformatics-is no mean task. That's where countries like India come into the picture, especially in the field of biotech drugs.

"We all have the same set of genes, but our responses to drugs are different because of variations in our DNAs," explains Anand Swaroop, professor, ophthalmology and human genetics, at the W.K. Kellogg Eye Center, Michigan. So to ascertain the ailments or hereditary disorders, crucial differences at the molecular level have to be isolated. Only then can the right drug to be administered be determined. "India," says Inder Verma, professor of genetics at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California, "has the scientists to read the data and separate it, and software professionals to collate it."

Swaroop points out that with more Indians getting involved in biomedical research, many of them get picked up by big players in the pharmaceuticals. But the significant trend is of those who have started their own companies.

Among the first CEOs of Indian origin at the helm of a biotechnology company is Kumar Chandrashekaran. The Delhi-born, IIT Powai alumnus came to the US in the 1960s to do graduate work at Berkeley in chemical engineering. Now at the top in InSite Vision, Chandrashekaran is pursuing research in biotechnology applications for curing eye ailments. "I am trying to see if I can use the drugs they are synthesising in India here," he says. The idea is to import the less expensive, slightly superior drug. And Chandrashekaran is ready to cash in on India's potential. Equally upbeat is Anu Deshbandhu Saad, CEO of Impath Company, a top-notch firm specialising in diagnostic work. Probably the only woman CEO of Indian origin in the US biotech sector, she believes the time is ripe for her company to move east.

THE SCENE IN INDIA WAKE UP CALL

Before health consultant David Hawkins led a team from the UK Department of Trade and Industry to India to explore opportunities in biotechnology, he wasn't quite sure of the outcome. Back in UK, he is an enthused man. "Bangalore will be the breeding ground of bioinformatics experts. We want to be in India before the rest of Europe and the US start outsourcing their biotech experts," he exclaims. NEW VISTAS: Students in a BT lab at Delhi's JNU The infotech city of Bangalore is being seen as the cradle of India's biotechnology revolution. A recent international conference drew the who's who of the industry. Finances for the sector, too is forthcoming. Not in the leaps and bounds like in it, but a definite trickle that could turn into a deluge. Kiran Mazumdar- Shaw, chairperson of the Vision Group of Biotechnology and Biocon India, says, "Though Karnataka is the largest recipient of venture capital funding at Rs 70 crore, we could actually be drawing more." The biotech meet roped in an investment of about Rs 300 crore. The it experience has made venture capitalists impatient for returns and they want the biotech industry to focus on products, not services. In 1999, Indian sales in biotech products touched $1 billion (Rs 4,800 crore) and is expected to triple in 2002. Biotech services, requiring a longer gestation period, is likely to be worth $10 billion by 2005-far smaller than the $625-billion it services. Sudhir Sethi of Walden International puts bioinformatics on top of the list of possible businesses, followed by contract research and value-for-money medical services. While the Centre has supported Karnataka's efforts with Rs 20 crore funding for several biotech projects and Rs 10 crore for a 100-acre BT park in Bangalore, it has stressed human resource development. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has set aside a chunk of next year's Rs 200-crore investment plan for research and training. "We are supporting biotechnology education in 64 institutes," says Manju Sharma, secretary, DBT. If Hawkins and others begin to outsource BT experts from India, most of these students could well end up overseas. -Stephen David with Ishara Bhasi and Prerna Singh Bindra

In the business of improving medical help for cancer patients, Impath with a database of over 8.7 lakh patient profiles, uses sophisticated technologies to provide patient-specific diagnostic, prognostic and treatment information. This information goes to over 8,300 physicians who specialise in cancer treatment, and to over 2,000 hospitals and 570 oncology practices. India, Saad feels, offers great potential for doing clinical trials and generating biopsy specimens primarily "because of the medical resources, the IT infrastructure and the thrust being given to biotechnology".

But there are also words of caution. Garg feels there is impatience in India that can be dangerous. In biotechnology, the investment costs are high ($50-100 million) and the incubation period lengthy, so the profit cycle is that much longer. "You can't make a baby in less than nine months," he quips. Garg's Tranzyme-which is involved in post-genomic drug discovery for neuro-sensory diseases-is now looking to India to set up a stem cell research collaboration. He sees India as an ideal manufacturing base. "Biotech drugs that have been around for decades and whose patents are about to expire can be manufactured in India at a tremendous cost advantage," he says.

In the next decade, more than 40 per cent of all new pharmaceuticals will be developed through biotech, accounting for over $100 billion in annual sales. This, Garg feels, would create confidence in US companies to bring in recent compounds to manufacture for export. Firms like Shanta Biotech have already begun manufacturing Interferon and the Hepatitis vaccine.

Tamil Nadu-born Benjamin Issacs, president of Massachusetts-based Formatech Inc, too thinks the Indian experience will be a two-way street. "The cost structure, the exchange rate disparity and the lower cost of living are advantageous. Also, India is competitive in manufacturing pharmaceutical products," he says. India can be used as a base to not only sell drugs to other developing countries but also to import drugs into the US, he believes.

But Issacs, whose company provides contract services to both biotech and pharmaceutical companies, has reservations about India's failure to update its patent laws. Utah-based Dinesh C. Patel agrees. Co-founder, chairman and CEO of TheraTech Inc, a pioneer in the development of innovative drug delivery products, Patel says: "Unless patent protection is air tight, nobody will put in serious money. On the research side, the prospects are good."

Patel sold TheraTech for $350 million in 1999 to California-based Watson Pharmaceuticals and co-founded two companies-Salus Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that develops anti-sense drugs, and Ashni Naturaceuticals Inc that makes patent-protected, clinically-tested natural products. He then set up vSpring Capital with a fund corpus of $120 million, of which 30 per cent is earmarked for BT investments. Patel is now looking to partner a venture to set up a tissue bank in India. "For genes testing you need a lot of tissue samples. The plan is to set up a wholly-owned subsidiary of Silico Insights in India," he says. An mou has recently been signed with the Andhra Pradesh Government.

It is more than apparent that Patel and a host of other NRIs have worked their way into a vantage position in the biotech sector in the US which is looking to expand its horizons. The key is whether India will be able to help itself to a portion of the global biotechnology pie.