First Lady; In Asia: India's top biotech CEO begs to differ with those who say Singapore leads the field.(Cover Story)

Byline: Sudip Mazumdar

When Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, now 51, set up a little operation in 1978 extracting an enzyme from papayas in her garage in a leafy neighborhood of Bangalore, few in India had ever heard of biotechnology. Her ambition: to build a world-class institution using India's own scientific talent. Today she heads the leading biotech firm in India, Biocon, a company that has evolved from a maker of enzymes to a major pharmaceutical enterprise producing everything from insulin to antibodies, with annual revenues of $122 million. A zoologist turned brewer, Mazumdar-Shaw is also the richest woman in India. When the company went public in March of this year, its shares were oversubscribed by 33 times on opening day, and it now has a total stock-market value of $1.2 billion. Mazumdar-Shaw, whose firm was singled out as a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer in 2001, aims to make Biocon one of the world's top-five biotech companies in the not-too-distant future. Last week, she spoke with NEWSWEEK's Sudip Mazumdar. Excerpts:

MAZUMDAR: Where does Asia stand in biotechnology?

MAZUMDAR-SHAW: Asia is the emerging region in biotechnology and now ranks No. 3 after the U.S.A. and Europe.

Several recent studies say that among Asian governments, many have tried to build biotech sectors from scratch, but only Singapore has succeeded in a big way. Would you agree?

I beg to differ with your statement. Singapore has attained limited success in building a biotech platform. Singapore, no doubt, has invested an enormous amount in setting up their Biopolis and continues to pour unlimited funds and government incentives into the biotech sector with a single-minded determination to attain global leadership. The biggest challenge for Singapore has been to match their investments with skilled human resources. On the other hand, countries like India have leveraged their scientific skill to build their biotech sectors, but have been unable to match it with the required infrastructure. In the long term, a model based on human resources is far more sustainable than one based on hardware.

Do you think there are any Asian pharmaceutical companies that can grow to be a giant like Pfizer?