Making it big in biotech
Jangveer Singh

A new star in biotechnology business, Villoo Moravala Patell is following in the footsteps of Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, who has done pioneering work in this field

FOR someone who started a life sciences company to give meaning to her Phd thesis, Villoo Moravala Patell has come a long way. Starting with a group of five students with grants from international foundations, Patell has forged a name for herself in the bio-technology field through her company Avesthagen which has created a business model by marrying high-tech research with proven marketing power.

A diminutive Parsi who not only quotes Mahatama Gandhi in her public speeches but says she thinks of the Mahatama every morning when faced with the challenges of life, Patell believes in building an equal society. Another influence is her father, a man who once served coffee to the Mahatma while running a railway canteen. "My father, a trader who chose to travel all over India for 10 years before coming back home to Hyderabad, taught me about social values. Through him I learnt to feel for farmers starving due to drought and wished I could do something to help them".

Talking about her childhood, she says her grandfather migrated to Hyderabad to serve the Nizam as a tax collector. "My mother, an educated woman who had studied in Pune, felt the society in Hyderabad was too orthodox and packed me off to St Ann’s School in Secunderabad. "I studied in this boarding school for nine years. The nuns opened up a new world before me besides giving me the pluck I have."

Villoo moved to Mumbai for a Master’s degree in medical bio-chemistry where she met her future husband. Back in Hyderabad, she worked for 10 years in the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). "During this period, I had two girls and when they were six and eight years old I decided it was time to take the next step."

The next step was taking her entire family to France, where she did her PhD in genetic modification of plants at the University of Loui Pasteur, Strasbourgh and also went through a post-doctoral tenure with the University of Ghent, Belgium. Back home at the age of 37 in 1995, Villoo felt she must do something to ensure her research had some meaning.

"I went to the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) and told them to give me space. I got two benches and started off with my work and even registered two patents, something which was unheard of in academic circles. I also registered Avasthagen and got research grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Indo-French Centre for Progress in Advanced Research to start work". In the next few years the fledgling body got more patents, including the global patent for the genetically modified drought-resistant seeds.

With Avesthagen doing pioneering research, Villoo decided to make good of it by establishing a public-private company and Avestha Gengrain was born in 2001. Villo raised Rs 1.25 crore from relatives and friends and got Rs 2 crore from the Tatas and Rs 1 crore from Global Trust to start a company with five students on the rolls.

Villoo says she relied on the convergence model to do her business. This meant developing high technology and using it to develop products. She said her company came into its own in 2004 when it entered into partnership with four major groups — Cipla in the pharmacuetical sector, Nestle in the functional food sector, Godrej in the agricultural sector and Merieux in the medical diagnostic sector. She entered into joint ventures with all four groups to create four companies and a slew of products. She believes the flexibility of this business model made it a success.

The joint ventures have come out with medicinal plant-based bioactive nutraceuticals for degenerative conditions such as diabetes, obesity and osteoporosis, DNA-based diagnostic products allowing for future personalised therapies and novel, value-added seed hybrids with enhanced nutritional value.

"We are 200 people today" says Villoo adding that the company will have a staff strength of 400 by March next year. "We have been profitable since the last two years and we expect to rake up a revenue of Rs 80 crore this year, including Rs 20 crore through pure R and D. This is laudable considering that no company makes money through R and D", she says signing off.