HYDERABAD: Many startups in the life science industry still lack the basic mentorship from industry heads of big pharmaceutical companies, noted experts at the 16th edition of Bio Asia on Wednesday. Stating that the future of Life Sciences Industry requires startups and big companies to integrate and converge their systems, they said that Life Sciences 4.0 can only happen if startups helped big companies find specific solutions with technology.
“The travel industry saw a disruptive breakthrough when startups came in and collaborated with big companies. The Life Sciences is also slated for a similar breakthrough and growth if the various stakeholders converge in life sciences with the interests of patient in the centre,” an exper t stated at the convention. A recent EY survey titled ‘Life Sciences 4.0: Transforming health care in India’ found that a major chunk (over 69%) of startups in the ecosystem only had 0-3 collaborations with life sciences companies. The survey also found that majority of startups collaborated with smaller companies with revenues less than `1 crore, as they found it challenging to partner with bigger companies.
“Even though there are so many pharma giants in the city, there is a need for a lot more collaboration to guide these startups and guide them early on,” said an official from from Transaction Square, an entity providing financing solutions to startups. They further added that funding was still an issue for the life-sciences startups. “The investor community is big and thriving but they are not in touch with start-ups in Hyderabad. There should be efforts made to provide startups direct access to investors through incubators,” they said.