India’s Symbiotec Builds Bridge Across Biomanufacturing’s “Valley of Death”

India-based Symbiotec Pharmalab is positioning itself as a key player in bridging the so-called “valley of death” in biomanufacturing — the critical gap between laboratory success and commercial-scale production that many biotech startups fail to cross. The company announced the launch of new large-scale fermentation and downstream processing facilities in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, providing much-needed capacity for emerging companies in alternative proteins, nutraceuticals, specialty chemicals, and biomaterials.

Speaking to AgFunderNews, Prakash Sawlani, Symbiotec’s US investments director, said the company’s four new 100,000-liter fermenters are fully operational and supported by filtration, extraction, crystallization, and spray-drying capabilities. Smaller-scale 2,000-L and 20,000-L fermenters are also available for pilot projects and technology transfer. The facility, powered by renewable energy, allows for rapid scale-up without the heavy financial burden typically seen in Western markets.

Sawlani emphasized Symbiotec’s cost advantage, noting that its capital expenditure requirements are “a third to a quarter” of what comparable facilities in the US or Europe demand. “Because we’re an owner-operator with an in-house engineering team, decisions are quick, scope is clear, and approvals don’t lag,” he said.

The company’s expansion into contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services stems from its experience in the pharmaceutical sector, where it is a leading Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) producer. The turning point, Sawlani recalled, came during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when supply disruptions from China forced Symbiotec to backward integrate its steroid production and master fermentation technology. “That’s when we learned how to design and build fermentation facilities from scratch,” he said.

Today, Symbiotec operates multiple manufacturing sites, including one for injectables and another — the new Ujjain campus — dedicated entirely to industrial biotechnology. The facility, active for just over three months, has the potential to scale to “millions of liters” of capacity over time, Sawlani noted.

Symbiotec’s approach, he said, sits in the “sweet spot” between food and pharma — offering biotech startups the technical sophistication of pharmaceutical manufacturing at a fraction of the cost. “You can’t just convert beer tanks to make food-grade proteins, and you can’t use biologics infrastructure or your product will be prohibitively expensive,” Sawlani explained. “We’ve built something optimized for this emerging middle space.”

Another strategic advantage, he said, is the company’s access to non-GMO dextrose as a fermentation feedstock, allowing customers to produce non-GMO certified foods — a growing priority for alt protein and functional food brands.

While Symbiotec acknowledges competition from facilities such as Liberation Bioindustries in Indiana, Sawlani described the firm’s model as a “paradigm shift” in scalability and cost efficiency. “If a company is quoted $20 million to build capacity elsewhere, we can deliver the same project for $6–7 million and have it running in nine months,” he said.

The company is now in talks with clients across specialty chemicals, flavors, fragrances, oils, and proteins. Even recent US tariffs of 50% on goods from India, Sawlani argued, “do not erase our cost advantage, particularly in capital investment.”

As biomanufacturing continues to expand globally, Symbiotec’s new facility in central India could become a critical node in the sustainable production ecosystem, offering a faster, more flexible, and cost-effective bridge between innovation and industrialization for the next generation of biotech ventures.