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Moneycontrol » News Center » Management
Ocimum Bio eyes world’s No 1 genome outsourcing co
Published on Sat, Sep 29, 2007 at 12:51   |  Updated at Thu, Oct 04, 2007 at 13:30  |  Source : Moneycontrol.com
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Anuradha Acharya runs a life sciences company, which is her brainchild. She is CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions, which is a life sciences R&D enabling company started in year 2000 with personal savings. Ocimum is today is headquartered in Hyderabad but has operation in the US and the Netherlands. Her five-year plan is to make Ocimum Biosolutions the No 1 genomic outsourcing in the world.

 

Acharya, 35, always had a scientific-bent of mind. From a family of IITians, she gave up the American dream for an entrepreneurial one. Hyderabad was the city of choice by default as it was home to life and business partner. She has also has come a long way from Rajasthan and her childhood dream to be a physicist.

 

Q: You never really thought about an academic career because your whole family comes from IIT?

 

A: When I was a child, I definitely wanted to be a physicist. My dad recorded a lot of interviews which says why I wanted to be a physicist. But the moment I steeped in to IIT, I realized I had other strengths.

 

Q: When did you first think about starting your own life sciences company or a bio life sciences company? You could have had a cushy job in the US and stayed on. Why the decision to turn entrepreneur and move back to India?

 

A: I always wanted to do something right from 1993-94. I thought of many different ideas, life science was a bit late as it was one of the ideas that came in 1997. It was pushed back to the corner and many other interesting ideas like trading bandwidth, doing online training, or doing something totally random came up. 1999 was when Ocimum started becoming a reality.

 

Ocimum means Tulsi and while the company’s core has Indian roots its clients are largely international. Starting with bio-IT, Ocimum has expanded its repertoire to bio molecules and bioresearch through acquisitions in Europe. Concentrating on research in pharma genomic and toxic genomics, Ocimum is discovering new drugs in innovative methodology to aid pharma companies.

 

Q: You said life science has happened to you much later, you actually considered or dabbled with several things before that. When did it finally convert itself into a business plan, when did you start the funding together, when did you actually decide this is the timeline, this is the target?

 

A: By the end of 1999 we decided that we are going to do this. In early 2000, we had our first baby and that was a good target. We said before she turns one, we have to head back home and need to this. If we were to stay back in the US, it is going to be really hard. So, we are going to move back to India and let Dr Sujata, who is our third founder, stay back in the US and start the lab over there. While we go back to India and start this IT support unit for it. Things turned around a lot in the last seven years. We started it off by being just a cost center and turned it around by making it like a headquarters now. So, the US became a subsidiary and we did a couple of acquisitions and have grown it since then.

 

Q: Where did the funding come from?

 

A: The initial funding came from home and from our savings. We stayed away from the VC’s for a long time. I think they came knocking at our doors and we said we are not interested.

 

Q: Why was that?

 

A: We wanted to prove a point. We had a lot of people coming in and saying, “You are doing bio informatics, why are you wasting your time.” We got a lot of people who kind off opposed us, who didn’t think it was an idea that would work. So, we said first we are going to make it work. We did a lot of interesting things in the beginning of the company. We did some amount of vertical integration and training to get revenues in. We have been profitable since the third year. In the second year, we barely made some money. So, it was interesting how we started the company.

 

Q: What’s the size of the company now?

 

A: Now, we are about 180 people. We did close to five million last year and this year hopefully we’ll do around 17-18 million.

 

Q: The two acquisitions that you were doing are on inorganic growth, the strategy that you are keenly looking at, because you have done one in Germany and one in the Netherlands?

 

A: The first one was by accident.

 

Q: Why accident?

 

A: I was selling them something, so that was an accident. It was great as it was very close to what we wanted to achieve. The opportunity presented itself to us. They came in and we thought it was a great way of building a brand up. After we did the first, the second followed and now we have got enough practice to go after the big ones.

 

It hasn’t been easy but Acharya has managed to harmonize her family’s growth with her vision for the company. A workaholic, she was back at work just two days after she gave birth to her first child. But with the help of her family and her team, she has set the rhythm for expansion not just in India but also in the rest of Asia and UAE.

 

Q: Three areas that your company is actually focusing on are bio-analytics, bio IT, and there is a third one as well?

 

A: We did a lot of bio IT in the beginning and added on bio molecules through acquisition because that was the best way of growing the business. Now, we are doing bioresearch, which is actually tying these two together. We are able to go to big pharma, big biotech, and even to research labs and tell them that you don’t set up a lab if you want genomics, you give us your samples and we will make sure we do the experiments, analysis, and will send you back the report.

 

Q: What exactly does bio-analytics, bio-informatics, and genomics actually entail to a lay person who doesn’t understands any of these?

 

A: There are many ways and directions in which this whole thing is going. You must have heard of personalized medicine. There are people who are trying to make medicines for individuals rather than making it for the masses. For that, a lot of people are doing research. They are doing pharmacogenomics research and then they do a lot of toxicogenomics. These are all buzzwords, which means that I am trying to discover new drugs or discover new ways of trying to figure out how research is done in these places. We are enabling them by doing this research for them. By saying genomics or anything else, we are looking at all the new technologies that help research companies.

 

Q: In terms of expansions, are you looking at setting up out of Hyderabad or setting up in other cities?

 

A: We do not have a presence right now in UAE or areas that potentially will grow a lot like Singapore. We see the Asia pack growing quite a bit, US is definitely the market for it. We have Europe where we have done enough. We have done a German and Dutch deal and people are now wondering which other countries we are looking at. More than that, it is also about strategy. We should be closer to where are our customers are located.

 

Life partners turned business partners, Anuradha and husband Subhash spent most of their time thinking not just about their future together but also about the next big lead for Ocimum. Targeting the USD 100 million mark by 2010, the duo is also putting plans in place for an IPO. Big ideas, a committed team, lots of enthusiasm, and a never say die spirit is what Anuradha hopes to bank as Ocimum consolidates its positions in the biotech world.

 

Q: What is the goal now? Do you have a vision or where you want to see yourself in the next 12-18 months or five-years?

 

A: Yes, one is to grow the company. The first target is to make it a USD 100 million company by 2010-11 and. After that, I want to think of how to take it to the next level and billion will be the next question. If you cannot do that and cannot figure out how to do that, then it is a time to move out and do something else.

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Tags: Anuradha Acharya, Ocimum Biosolutions
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