Political events in India and the government's lack of conviction on policy matters have taken their toll on India's image as an attractive investment decision. The change in the country's credit rating outlook by a global credit rating agencies has further dealt a blow. Even as this generated some scare in the industry, many investors and analysts criticized the accuracy of the rating agencies.

Recent deals such as between that of Sanofi-Shantha Biotech, Daiichi Sankyo-Ranbaxy, Abbott-Piramal Healthcare and Hospira-Orchid Chemicals have only highlighted the interest displayed by foreign companies in investing in Indian bioscience firms.

Dr Murali P Muthuswamy, president, Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE), echoes this sentiment as he says that the outlook is all but dim for the bioscience industry, which boasts of a growth rate of around the 20 percent.

Dr Murali is a entrepreneur with more than two decades of experience with many first-of-its-kind products and innovations in many areas of biotechnology. He is creidted with building the entire Indian arm of the $100 million Swiss biotech company, Evolva Biotech, where he is currently the MD and CEO of the India operations. In an email interview to BioSpectrum, he talks about whether the scale down and threat of junk rating has affected investor sentiments in the biosciences industry.

Do you think the change in India's credit rating outlook by Standard & Poor's (S&P's) has affected the lifescience industries?
To answer this question let us look at the some of the present figures for pharma and biotech sectors in India.