Hyderabad emerges as world’s most competitive cluster for life sciences R&D: fDi Benchmark

Hyderabad: Hyderabad is the world’s most competitive cluster for life sciences research and development (R&D) functions, according to fDi Benchmark data, followed by other Indian cities Noida and Chennai.  The model benchmarks the largest destinations globally for foreign direct investment (FDI) into life sciences R&D operations, according to each location’s quality and cost competitiveness. The […]

Hyderabad: Hyderabad is the world’s most competitive cluster for life sciences research and development (R&D) functions, according to fDi Benchmark data, followed by other Indian cities Noida and Chennai. 

The model benchmarks the largest destinations globally for foreign direct investment (FDI) into life sciences R&D operations, according to each location’s quality and cost competitiveness. The benchmark finds the best location for a 50-person life science R&D lab occupying 3,000 square metres of office space. 

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Guangzhou of China is positioned at fourth position globally, followed by Mumbai and South Korea’s capital city Seoul, outperforming other cities in developed countries. The top-10 also comprises three Indian locations — Bengaluru, Gurugram and Pune as well as Chengdu of China.

The competitiveness of Indian major life sciences clusters has positioned the country ahead of its peers as the Covid-19 pandemic showed the vital role of R&D-led activity in the sector. India placed seven of the 10 most competitive locations for research and development functions in the life sciences sectors, according to a model developed by fDi Benchmark (fDi Intelligence). fDi Intelligence is a division of Financial Times Group.

Indian cities scored highly in most of the cost data points, with the yearly cost of running the modelled 50-person R&D hub falling below $1 million in the cases of Noida ($830,653) and Hyderabad ($902,567) — about half the cost of their Chinese counterparts, Wuxi ($1,626,101) and Suzhou ($1,679,679). This is just a fraction of the cost of R&D hotspots in developed countries of Cambridge, UK ($4,484,667) and Boston, US ($7,567,706).

Quality parameter 

From the quality component of the assessment, Mumbai made it to the top-five in the quality assessment, while Hyderabad stood 12th. Seoul topped the global ranking, owing to access to specialised staff and its prowess in R&D operations since the outset of the pandemic. Seoul-based Kogene Biotech brought to market the first Covid-19 testing kit as early as February 2020, helping the country rapidly deploy mass testing and thus avoid a major national lockdown throughout the crisis.

Guangzhou and Tokyo came in second and third, respectively, for the quality of their life sciences R&D clusters, with Guangzhou in particular, standing out for the depth of its existing cluster. European and North American locations lagged their Asian peers for competitiveness. 

Istanbul was the best European location, placed at 14^th position overall, and New York is the best North American location occupying 22nd position. In developed Asia, Tokyo ranked 18th overall and Singapore 33rd overall.

China and India were second and third, respectively, behind the US with regards to the amount of greenfield life sciences R&D FDI they have been able to attract between January 2015 and August 2021, as per the estimates made by investment monitor fDi Markets.

Highlighting the strengths of the Hyderabad ecosystem, Sanket Sinha, head, Asset Management, Lighthouse Canton, Singapore, said, “We have a strong demand pipeline for leased life sciences R&D facilities in Hyderabad. We will be adding more space to our portfolio in Genome Valley, the largest life sciences R&D cluster in India, as we expect the cluster to be a big beneficiary of this trend.”

It is pertinent to note that Hyderabad also has been ranked No 1 in the third and latest edition of fDi’s Aerospace Cities of the Future 2020-21 rankings, under the category of Top 10 Aerospace Cities in Cost-Effectiveness by fDi Intelligence.com.

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