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An Ernst and Young study has named India as one of the five emerging biotech leaders in Asia Pacific besides Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and Korea, with mainland China catching up quickly. The study ranked India third in the region based on the number of biotech companies (96) in the country after Australia (228) and China, including Hong Kong (136).

As the country has developed into a R&D hub, a number of foreign firms such as Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, German drug maker Bayer, Aventis of France and US-based Pfizer Inc are sourcing work to India.

The biotech sector employs nearly 9,000 scientists and technologists, up from 6,400 in FY2004. It attracted an investment of Rs 6.35 billion ($137 million) during 2003-04; an additional investment of Rs 10 billion ($216 million) is expected in FY2005.

According to the Ernst and Young study, the sector is expected to create more than one million biotech jobs over the next five years. This growth is expected to come on the back of increased partnering activity, transition to a product driven model, growth in the biogenerics market and government initiatives to encourage investment and expansion.

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