Last updated : June 01, 2026 9:05 am
We have the chance to build an IP estate that goes hand in hand with our generic pharmaceutical strength and build proprietary biological platforms
For the last few years, deeptech has largely meant space-tech, energy innovations, hardware and AI. But there’s another side that goes largely unnoticed, the side that works on synthesizing life-saving proteins, on curing diseases and manufacturing biomolecules that millions depend on. Deeptech that requires patient capital, cannot be deployed overnight and is met with stringent regulatory approvals at every stage.
With COVID-19, it got some limelight when industry and science had to work together to rapidly meet the needs of a global crisis. In India, we rose to the challenge, not by replicating the west or licensing formulas but by mastering scalable biologics. We currently supply close to 60% of the world’s vaccines by volume, we’re called the ‘pharmacy of the world’. Now that we’ve built that foundation, what can we build on top of it? The answer is surprisingly small, bug-sized.
Why insects? Why now?
Science is yet to catch up with what insects have been doing all by themselves for 400 million years. Insect biotech is bridging that gap. Drosophila melanogaster opened the doors for genetics research. Honeybee venom peptides are being investigated as anti-inflammatory and anticancer agents. As we look at the structural vulnerabilities of modern medicine, insects provide a scalable answer.
Take recombinant proteins, it is the human chorionic gonadotropin antibody in a pregnancy test kit, it is the kinases used in oncology drug discovery research and the viral antigens in rapid diagnostic test kits. The demand for recombinants is growing rapidly, but the most common recombinant production method, mammalian cell culture, particularly Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell systems has structural pitfalls. We’re dependent on imports from Brazil, New Zealand and USA for Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) which is essential to CHO and costs Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 1,00,000+ per litre. With tens of thousands of litres needed for a single commercial run, this supply chain leaves India's healthcare infrastructure permanently dependent on foreign supply chains for biologics API.
What if insects could pave a way out of this trap? There is precedence. Take Flublok, an FDA-approved recombinant influenza vaccine that is produced from Sf9 insect cells, or Cervarix, GlaxoSmithKline’s HPV vaccine approved by European Medicines Agency and produced from baculovirus system in Trichoplusia ni cells. The science is not experimental. It is already inside regulated healthcare systems worldwide.The advantage with insect systems is simple: reduce external dependence, reduce risk of contamination from adventitious agents, enable a competitive cost structure and build biologics sovereignty. What is missing is an Indian manufacturer with the infrastructure, biological depth, and commercial ambition to build this capability at meaningful domestic scale.
New silk road
An unexpected insect can turn this ambition into reality. Silkworm, Bombyx Mori has been domesticated for centuries, and silk, which is 98% high-performance protein, might just be the least interesting thing about the insect. A single silkworm pupa synthesizes nearly 20,000 distinct proteins over its lifecycle. It contains protein at concentrations exceeding 50% of its dry weight. When used as a vessel for recombinant production, it removes the need for upstream bioreactor infrastructure even in comparison to other insect cell culture. It performs post-translational modifications with its eukaryotic cellular machinery that is essential for biological activity of complex diagnostic and therapeutic proteins. Further, it lowers 2 to 5x the cost compared to the mammalian system.
Here’s where a supply chain hedge exists. India is the world's second-largest silk producer, with a government-supported sericulture network and over 40 academic institutions teaching silkworm biotechnology. By tapping into India’s structural abundance, we can eliminate steel tanks, imported serums and scale affordable, high-quality biological molecules. Not just made in India for India, but exportable to the world. That is the new silk road: not a thread, but a protein.
India’s opportunity: Bio-manufacturing strength meets patentable assets
India’s initial momentum, becoming the ‘pharmacy of the world’ was built on volume, i.e. we mastered scale and unit economics to supply to the world. With insect biotechnology, the opportunity shifts to intellectual property over volume.
Whether its baculovirus expression vectors, codon-optimised gene sequences, proprietary downstream purification processes, or novel protein formulations, these are all patentable assets. We have the chance to build an IP estate that goes hand in hand with our generic pharmaceutical strength and build proprietary biological platforms with infrastructure India already owns.
The addressable opportunity extends beyond therapeutics. Biologics like monoclonal antibodies, targeted cancer therapies and advanced vaccines represent the fastest-growing and most expensive sector of modern medicine. They remain financially out of reach for billions across the Global South precisely because they are manufactured using expensive Western mammalian systems. India, with its tropical climate, vast agrarian footprint and horizontal scaling model, is structurally positioned to change that equation. Dropping production costs by orders of magnitude doesn't just create a commercial opportunity it changes the global public health calculus.
Insect biotechnology is not a niche. It is a platform built on proven science, growing regulatory acceptance, and a cost architecture uniquely suited to where India's strengths already lie. In a world that now fully understands what biomanufacturing gaps cost, building this capability is not optional. It is strategic.
About Author: Ankit Alok Bagaria represents a new wave of young Indian deep-tech founders who are betting big on novel industrial biotech to revolutionize how we manufacture proteins. An IIT Roorkee alumnus, Ankit is redefining global biomanufacturing for affordable diagnostics and healthcare, sustainable food systems and resilient supply chains and building a new silk road from India to the world.
*The author’s views are his own and do not necessarily represent those of the publisher.