India's biotech growth is expected to ride on the back of partnering and transition to product-driven models.

In a report titled 'Indian Biotechnology - The Rising', investment bank Avendus said that the growth is presently aided by growth in the biogenerics market with strong government initiatives.

Though a latecomer in the global biotech scene, India has strengths like a large pool of scientific talent, several research labs and, research and development institutions and strong IT skills, the report added.

The inherent advantage in India is compounded with rising public interest in the sector, growing investments from traditional business houses, favourable government stance which has also helped the sector.

The significant interest of international community has enabled the country to realise the dream of $5 billion biotech market by 2010 and there may be more to India Inc than IT software giants, the report said.

On the trends in the biotech sector, Avendus said that a sweltering growth is being seen in the human insulin market.

The Indian insulin market is presently valued about $55.8 million and is seeing a growth of around 40.5 per cent. With this, the share of animal insulin products are falling.

In insulin, India is emerging as the vaccine hub with domestic companies developing strong capabilities in vaccine development and manufacturing.

The vaccine market has also got a boost with animal healthcare companies expanding their manufacturing expertise to human healthcare in a big way.

A key example is that of Indian Immunologicals, a major animal healthcare firm, filing seven global patents on novel combination DNA rabies vaccine, the report said.

(http://us.rediff.com)