Sometimes ones humdrum existence is motivation enough for action. At least for Villoo Morawala-Patell, founder, chairman and managing director of Bangalore-based life sciences company Avesthagen Limited, it indeed was. She was a successful wife, mother and research scientist based in Hyderabad. But at one point she felt the need to make a quantum leap, a jump of some kind.
?There was this burning desire in me to create something, to change the world,? she says. This wasn?t going to be easy given the fact that she was 32, had a family and professional commitments to fulfil. Yet, she took a decision?to go back to the university and pursue her doctorate in molecular biology. ?I had a master?s degree in medical biochemistry. I said to myself, ?Why don?t I get a PhD?? Science is my passion and if I have to bring change, then I must have the core competency,? she recollects.
Villoo joined the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France in her drive to acquire a PhD, which was at the cutting-edge of science. This was in 1989. She juggled both, her education and the needs of her young children who had accompanied her to France. Being an unconventional student in a foreign country meant that the road to success wasn?t easy. But Villoo was not one to hang up her boots so soon.
What helped was support from friends she?d made while at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad. ?I was with ICRISAT for ten years. The association was long enough for me to make friends who I could turn to in France.? Teachers and fellow-students at Louis Pasteur were supportive too. This helped Villoo settle into her dual roles of a mother and a student. ?Managing my education and two daughters, was a huge growing experience,? she says.
But this wasn?t going to be the end of her journey as far as academics went. After her doctorate, which stretched for three-and-a-half years, she took up a one-year post-doctorate programme. This was in applied research in contrast to her doctoral programme, which was in fundamental research. ?I learnt how companies were spun out of R&D. I was studying at a lab in Belgium, which spun off the first biotech company solely on the strength of its technology. This was in plant genetic systems. The company grew and was later acquired for $800 million.?
This knowledge came in handy when she decided to set up her own company. But that came a bit later. Armed with a doctorate and post-doctorate degrees, Villoo felt she was ready to make a difference in some way to the research scenario in India. ?I wanted to do something that was driven by innovation and yet participate in the global agenda in some way.? She soon realised she was a bit ahead of her time.
?In 1993-94, pharmaceutical and agri-companies in the country did not have the required expertise in fundamental research. There was a huge gap between what existed here and what was happening around the world. Even academia lacked the expertise in fundamental research.? She says that though, there were some institutes, which did have the knowledge and expertise,
?I was speaking a different language for them too. My point was that we could be a bridge between industry and academia by building technologies that were relevant to the former. But they weren?t ready for it,? she points out.
With no takers for her ideas, Villoo increasingly found herself isolated from others. But the iron lady was not ready to give up yet. She soon joined forces with the Tatas who were setting up a lab in Bangalore, moved her children from Hyderabad to Bangalore and worked on building technologies for the former. But, soon enough she felt she wasn?t getting the necessary freedom to pursue her dreams and decided to opt out. She then went to the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore and after meeting director Dr K Vijay Raghavan, set up a small lab that focussed on building technologies. ?I applied for a Rockefeller grant and built technologies for four years, which I patented. I was viewed as the bad girl in research for patenting my technologies, but I was determined to make a difference in some way.?
By the end of 1998, Villoo had decided that it was time to set up her own enterprise because that would give her the freedom to do what she wanted. ?Avesthagen was set up as a non-profit organisation and Avestha Gengraine Technologies was the profit arm. In short, it was a public-private model,? she says. The idea then was to build technologies in Avesthagen and use the umbrella of Avestha Gengraine to get a commercial licence for them.
?This was the initial model, which I pitched to the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) and the NCBS in Bangalore in the hope of helping them commercialise their research work.? By September 1999, however Villoo realised that the model wasn?t working.
Avesthagen was absorbed into Avestha Gengraine Technologies as a brand committed to corporate social responsibility. She set up her office, appointed an accountant, in a sense got her company moving. But it was not until 2001 that Avestha Gengraine Technologies, which was recently rechristened as Avesthagen Limited, actually began operations.
Till then, Villoo continued to operate from the premises of NCBS and UAS working on genomics and DNA recombinant technology. ?I made my business plan in 2000. I drew a boat with three sails representing three pillars of my business.? She called the first sail ?Seed for Food?, the second ?Food for Medicine? and the third ?R&D Partnering?. ?The idea was to draw from the rich Indian biodiversity and innovate using the information lying there,? she adds.
Research and development partnering was something that Villoo sought keenly. Astra Zeneca, BioM?rieux, Novartis and Nestl? came on board as partners in research and development. The idea was to do work that was relevant to these companies. So for Astra Zeneca, Avesthagen built their tuberculosis (TB) library. Similarly, Avesthagen collaborated with BioM?rieuxto to build a TB chip to help them detect different strains of the virus. Some of the partners eventually went on to become investors in the company such as BioM?rieux, for instance. Cipla, Danone, Tata Industries, Limagraine, ICICI Venture Funds and Godrej are some of the other investors in the company.
Says Villoo, ?I have been fortunate to have my long-term partners becoming investors in my company.? At the moment, Villoo is looking to launch an initial public offering in the second half of the year. The targeted amount is about Rs 1,200-1,600 crore, which will be used to expand its research and development and other capabilities. She has also completed a few acquisitions to strengthen her operations and has divided her business into four parts?biopharmaceuticals, bionutrition, bioagriculture and science and innovation. ?The four verticals tie in with the three pillars of my business. That?s one. Secondly, the bifurcation happened in 2003-04 to impart greater clarity to my business and get investors.? Each strategic business unit has a head who reports to the chief operating officer of Avesthagen, Samaresh Parida, erstwhile finance director at PepsiCo. ?Samaresh looks after the day-to-day affairs of the company. I look at the scientific output since that is where my knowledge and expertise can be best utilised.?
Being at the helm of a growing company means that Villoo has very little time for herself, but she is not complaining. ?My husband lives in Hyderabad. I am in Bangalore. It?s a long-distance courtship,? she quips. Having devoted almost twenty years of her life to her passion and business, Villoo feels that there is more she can offer. ?From 1989 to now, it has been an adventure. And I am still raring to go.?
