Strategic Blueprint & Detailed Project Report for the Bio 360 Life Sciences Park

Background and Scope

KSIDC’s Bio 360 Lifesciences Park, being developed in Trivandrum envisions creating a holistic 360 degree ecosystem, spanning the research to commercial manufacturing continuum across different segments of biotechnology and life sciences.  Sathguru has been a long-standing advisor to KSIDC over a period of several years supporting different stages of Park development: conceptualization of park strategy and positioning, market research, planning of common/shared infrastructure based on need assessment, business modelling for investments and operations and development of detailed project report and marketing plan.

Scope, approach and impact:

Sathguru developed the detailed project report and marketing plan for the biotech park and comprehensively covered the following activities:

Evolving industry trends in biotech :

Sathguru performed detailed primary and secondary research to analyse evolving trends across segments of life sciences and biotech to assess the following:

• Industry trends and evolving opportunity for Indian industry: Through extensive market research, we identified key industry trends across all sub-segments of life sciences – specialty pharmaceuticals and drug discovery, bio-pharmaceuticals and vaccines, animal health, food ingredients and food value addition, agri-biotechnology (such as plant tissue culture et al.). We assessed the evolving nature of opportunity by sub-segment, potential for innovation led growth and five to ten year outlook impacting industry investment appetite.
• Industry need and enabling ecosystem needed for achieving growth potential: Through primary research covering stakeholder interactions with major companies in every sub-segment and local stakeholder in Kerala, we identified key enablers needed for achieving growth potential in each sub-segment. We assessed need for any common/shared infrastructure, specialized services, policy impetus, applied training and talent pool et al.
• Kerala state’s comparative advantage and potential to nurture enhanced industry presence in the state: We also finely mapped the inherent advantages for companies across various sub-segments to operate out of the Bio 360 park in Trivandrum and potential for enhancing such comparative advantage through ecosystem development efforts.

Competitive Landscape and Benchmarking with current and proposed Life sciences Parks in India:

• Sathguru mapped competitive landscape in terms of other life sciences initiatives in the country, to get a clear and holistic overview of their capacity, infrastructure and operational model and pricing.
• We mapped overall country capacity in terms or remaining land area available for occupancy across lifescience parks and biotech incubators.
• The competitive benchmarking exercise was vital to inform overall park positioning strategy as well as operational decisions on infrastructure, access model and pricing.

Segmental focus of the Biotech Park, overall positioning and strategy:

• Based on the review of evolving opportunity by sub-segment of biotech and life sciences, industry investment appetite, potential to nurture Kerala as a competitive location option and benchmarking with other infrastructure developments in the country, we developed overall strategy for segmental focus and positioning of the Bio 360 life sciences Park.
• The overall positioning entailed a unique ecosystem of research to commercial engagement in the focus segments of life sciences. With well conceived shared infrastructure, enablement of critical inputs and services (including lab animal for research, analytical services et al.) and an ecosystem approach to development, the Bio 360 Park envisions bridging important gaps in current environment and being a fertile ground for early engagement to large scale commercial manufacturing.

Infrastructure and Business Model:

• Based on review of competitive parks, secondary research and interactions with companies under different verticals of biotech and life sciences, we captured the unmet needs that needs to be addressed from an infrastructure perspective within the park. Based on overall segmental focus and nature of infrastructure envisioned, Sathguru developed comprehensive blueprint of all infrastructure and recommended park zoning and space allocation within the park.
• Sathguru team worked closely with all technical experts and KSIDC appointed architects to review detailed architecture plan. We developed detailed specifications for all proposed scientific infrastructure including the cGMP bioprocess facility, lab infrastructure et al.
• We assessed operational implications of various operating models for strategic components of the park with due consideration of factors such as level of scientific knowledge and complexity required for operations, ease of use and access, financial viability et al.
• For all key components of shared infrastructure of specialized services envisioned in the park, we recommended business model, need for public private partnerships (PPPSs) and operating partners, pricing and access considerations to ensure optimal use and financial sustainability.

Investment quantification and financial viability assessment:

• Based on detailed specifications developed for all scientific infrastructure and overall infrasturutre plan, we quantified investment needed to operationalize the envisioned biotech park.
• We recommended revenue and pricing model for various components of the biotech park and quantified project revenue from both Phase I and Phase II of the Park.
• We developed detailed projections of the operating cost and assessed implications for operational break-even and financial sustainability of the Biotech Park.
• In addition to financial sustainability, we also performed a socio-economic benefit analysis for the intended biotech park covering various socio-economic metrics such as job creation, FDI, tax inflows, IP creation and monetization et al.

Marketing strategy and industry engagement:

• Based on the industry verticals identified to target for park occupancy, envisioned positioning of the park and perceived value, Sathguru team also developed the marketing strategy for the biotech park.
• Across prioritized sub-segments of life sciences, we identified major companies locally in Kerala, nationally and internationally that could have interest in locating with the Park. In addition to mapping potential occupants, we also identified key platforms for promotion of the park and supported KSIDC in initiating the park marketing efforts.
• Sathguru supported preliminary industry engagement as well as partnership with international stakeholders who can strengthen the overall park ecosystem. Sathguru supported KSIDC in forging relationship with leading US university and several companies across identified sub-segments.