'Opportunities in India are currently more than US' 

 
We are always looking for bright people both with Bachelors and Masters Degree. Dr.Sonjoy Mukerjee, one of the brightest face in Shantha Biotechnics's R&D division, motivates Biotech youngsters during his chat with AbhayJere.com 

Welcome Dr.Sonjoy and thanks for talking to AbhayJere.com. 
Hello, Abhay it's good to talk to you.

At AbhayJere.com, we aim to create a platform for guiding young Biotechnologist and orient them more for better prospects in industry or research institutions, but before getting into that discussion please tell us more about Shantha Biotech’s success and future plans.
Shantha Biotechnics was formed in 1993 by Dr Varaprasad Reddy, our Managing Director. At that time nobody in India knew anything about biotechnology. With a passion to succeed and help from some of his NRI friends and funding from the Bank of Oman, Shantha Biotechnics started developing India’s first genetically engineered product, a recombinant Hepatitis B vaccine. This product was launched in Aug of 1997 and since then we have not looked back.
Going Heading forward, we are now mainly concentrating on vaccines for infectious diseases and therapies such as monoclonal antibodies for oncology.

 

How long you have been associated with Shantha and what nature of projects are you currently heading?
I have been with the company since July of 1999 but have known Dr Varaprasad since 1993 when he happened to visit Hilton Head Hospital, South Carolina where I was associated with Dr Rajko Medinica, a clinical Oncologist.

My current projects involve mammalian gene expression, vector development and manufacturing of mammalian cell expressed products such as monoclonal antibodies and Erythropoietin.

 

Dr. Sonjoy, you had successful career as a basic research scientist in USA, what motivated you towards joining an Indian Biotech Industry, especially when plenty of jobs were available in many multi-nationals companies?
The time both, me and my wife, decided to move back to India along with our two daughters we were pretty much settled in the US as we had spent close to 10 years in this country. I returned to India mainly because I wanted to give something back to India using the knowledge and technical know-how what I gained in the US. I was very fortunate to have met a person like Dr Varaprasad who has faith in my work and has given an opportunity to fulfill my goals in life.

 

Was coming back to India a tough decision, considering good quality of life and plethora of opportunities in USA?
Both me and my wife had a desire to return to India and we took our time to decide knowing fully well what it’ll be like in India. I had traveled to Hyderabad twice and was fully aware of the advantages and the disadvantages of returning to India. Definitely, the quality of life is better here but I wanted to be in India and to do something and be recognized for my contribution in the filed of Biotechnology. USA definitely has given me a lot of knowledge and a good life but opportunities in India are currently a lot more than US.

 

At the time, when you decided to come back, India only had high promises to offer, but lacked the very basic infrastructure to sustain the growth in Biotech industry, did that bothered you?
Definitely, it bothered me and the only thing I did in Shantha for the first couple of years was to help in infrastructure development that could support my kind of research and product development. In 2001, Dr Abdul Kalam inaugurated a brand new R&D centre at Shantha Biotechnics where we are today. I personally feel one should have the confidence in his own performance and a goal and vision in life to succeed.

 

Whether you felt anytime that you are taking a major risk?
Like I have mentioned before once we had taken a decision to return to India we were ready to face the consequences. Once we were in India, there was no looking back.

Indian industry is always strongly criticized for not being innovative, is Shantha trying to refute this criticism?
I feel that Indian industry does not have the endurance and money to do innovative research. There is no venture capital funding in India as is available in the US to fund such kind of innovative research. At Shantha, we have adopted innovative process development as we were the first to clone and express hepatitis B vaccine in Pichia pastoris. I believe that is novel!!! The earlier vaccine from Smith Kline and Beecham, is produced in Saccharomyces. Not only did our innovation, bring down the cost, but the vaccine has a better immunogenic profile. Similarly, we have made many such products in our R&D by changes in process and host systems.

Recently, you have been visiting USA frequently; shall we expect any major announcement in near future from Shantha?
With news about the Shantha Merrieux alliance in the past 3 months, I don’t believe there will be any major announcements from our side in the near future.

Currently there is big crop of biotech institutes offering all kind of Bachelors and Masters degrees to tons of young student, but our industry is not growing at that rate and many bright students end-up jobless, what is your advise to them?
I don’t agree to that. In India, we are always looking for bright people both with Bachelors and Masters Degree. One has to be clear which field of Biotechnology one has to go and to have patience to succeed.

 

AbhayJere.com receive large number of emails from Biotech freshers, asking what will make them eligible for a good job in an industry, How would you guide these freshers?
As I said, one has to clearly define his objective or goals. If someone wants to be in area of Molecular Biology, then (s)he needs to pursue doctoral studies , as currently Ph.D. candidates are preferred for Mol bio, while if someone in inclined towards process development then M.Tech is a better option. Similarly, for Formulation development M.Pharm is more preferred while for someone keen on developing business administrative skills, MBA is a good choice.

Finally, in future, if AbhayJere.com requests you to consider few good students, for jobs/ training at Shantha Biotechnics, whether your organization will support us wholeheartedly?
Of course….. we will surely consider any such requests positively.

 
Especially, for students from North-East India, region almost deprived of good industry.
We do understand that students from the North-East are deprived of industrial training. I strongly encourage them to apply with us, Shantha always welcomes talented youngsters.

 

Thank Dr. Sonjoy Mukerjee for sparing your valuable time and for a very positive message to our young biotechnologists. AbhayJere.com is extremely grateful to you for all your support and encouragement and we hope to interact with you more in near future. Thanks once again

Dr.Sonjoy Mukerjee is a renowned scientist and currently working as Head, Monoclonal Antibody Section at Shantha Biotechnics, Hyderabad.