As India prepares to be a five trillion dollar economy by the year 2024-25, Bio-economy is projected to be a key player to achieve the target. Currently, the USA contributes the most to the world in Bio-technology, but by 2025 India‘s contribution is expected to grow with 19 percent from 3 percent. 

For every sector to grow, we need entrepreneurs who would revolutionize the business through the company. The life journey of an entrepreneur is often reflected in their brand, the goal, the product, and every other minute detail of the company that connects the dots with their life. It's easy to know what the brand is up to these days, you just google it and numbers are yours. But here at Profectus, we aspire to take you on the journey of an entrepreneur Dr. Nagma Abbasi, Whose life is about revolutionizing Biotechnology through NextGen Life Sciences. 

Early Life

Being a researcher from India’s one of the top universities isn’t easy. Nagma spent almost 14 years of her life in hostel for her studies. Born in a town named Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh, Nagma moved to A.M. U. Aligarh for further studies. After completing graduation and post-graduation, she pursued her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the Aligarh Muslim University. Intrigued to research more on the subject, she later joined Indian Agricultural Research Institute as a post-doctoral researcher. Her research work has been published in 10-15 International Journals including the International Journal of virology and she presented her research papers in several conferences. Before stepping into the corporate world, Nagma was a hard core molecular biologist reseacher in Indais’s premium Insitute and used to teach M.Sc and M. Tech students at central Universities like Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi and A.M. U. Aligarh.

Bridging the gap

A researcher to step into the corporate world wasn’t something common at that time says Nagma. After leaving academics, she joined as Technical specialist in corporate world and used to assistscientists and researchers on technical queries and used to educate them on New innovative technologies. As she moved up the ladder from the Technical field to Product Management groups she understood the needs and gaps of the Biotechnological field. The curiosity and interest to learn more led Nagma to move to the Sales and Marketing field. Before starting NextGen Life Sciences Pvt Ltd, Nagma worked for a US-based Multinational company as Key Account Manager of Key Research Institutes of India, she was bridging the gap between the Scientists and their company. It's a rare combination to find a researcher with interest & Experience for sales; Nagma understood the needs of scientists and had the experience about how to fulfill that. That's when it struck why not starts a venture? 

NextGen Life Sciences Pvt Ltd

Strategy execution is the main component that makes or breaks any Business. Biotechnology is amongst one of the fields that require lots of capital investment, especially during the initiation. Nagma had to pave her way to the business world as she was the first person in her family to do something other than Academics. In order to cater to the untapped opportunities in the industry, Dr. Nagma Abbasi established NextGen Life Sciences with an aim to bridge the gap between the needs and pains of researchers of the life sciences/biotech industry and assist the scientists to gain insight into the recent innovations and technologies, assuring a sound knowledge of the subject matter. Henceforth, with its augmented spectrum of products and solutions, NextGen is empowering the mounting realm of complex analytical challenges. The company addresses a wide range of requirements such as the sample, material characterisation, and chemical analysis to clinical diagnosis and biological-based therapeutics handling.

Being a scientist herself, Dr. Abbasi was aware of the pain points of scientists in the biotechnology, life sciences, and healthcare industry. Having this experience was beneficial for curating the services of NextGen and turning it into a successful establishment. However, like any other startup initially, the company too had to face a few challenges such as capital investments, assembling a quality team, building a customer base, and a good relationship. 

Since the inception of NextGen Life Sciences back in 2014 Nagma has crossed every hurdle on her own. Today NextGen serves to Top notch premium clients of Biotechnology, Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry.

COVID Phase

As much we like to think that humans have control over the planet, it's just an imaginary bubble. This pandemic made it clear that it doesn’t matter what you’ve accomplished, you’ll sit inside your houses praying for your life to get back to normal. On the optimistic side, this pandemic made India realize that it is a biotechnological wizard. Like every other business, NextGen Life Sciences struggled to sustain itself during this pandemic especially at the time of first wave. The pressure on the hospitals and Diagnostic centres for RT PCR COVID testing kits and RT PCR machines as well as Research Centers for developing vaccine, this challenging situations were treated as the golden opportunity for NextGen Life Sciences and their team to do more for the Nation. NextGen started coordinating with ICMR approved diagnostics center to fulfill the gap of COVID testing kits and much more. Challenges often yield positive outcomes, says Dr. Abbasi. 

India’s contribution to World Bio-economy

India is a growing economy, right now it shares 3% of the world's bio-economy, even before the pandemic we had a program like ‘Vigyan se Vikash’ but the COVID crisis has brought this sector into the limelight. We are looking to hold about 19% of the bio-economy by the end of 2025. Companies like Serum Insitute of India and Bharat Biotech have played a key factor in developing the COVID vaccines; this motivates young firms like us to do better. Dr. Nagma Abbasi says, ‘Youngsters should accept such challenges and invest themselves into this sector. As we gave the world two effective vaccines, it is a statement that India isn’t what it used to be. If you take a peek in the past, we weren’t much progressive in Biotechnology; we used to import technology from the foreign countries. India has intellectual minds, they can lead, they can produce, they can create… all they need is mentorship and guidance. The key to achieving that in my opinion is collaboration between the public and private sectors. India currently needs more R&D Centers, COVID effect is still fresh and India just needs to re-engineer it to grow. Indian government without any doubt is doing its best to develop infrastructure for biotechnology, but India needs its young entrepreneurs to come forward in this sector, says Dr. Abbasi. Apart from the government, researchers also need to do their part. Often research seems to be limited on paper, it should be encouraged to be more of Applied research. Under ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’, we are looking towards a healthy future. Financial supports are available for start up, but more awareness programs are needed to take initiative to promote them. Once they start to promote and endorse it more, it will create a sense of social security within young entrepreneurs. It will inspire them to do more for society, Nagma adds. 

Moving Forward With NextGen

Mikhail Gorbachev once said ‘If you are not moving forward, you begin to move backward.’ As COVID has pressed pause at our growth, it is time to move forward. NextGen plans to go pan India soon, right now they are predominately present in the North Indian region. They have also collaborated with GeM (Government E-Marketplace) which is step one towards pan India expansion. Nagma also plans to contribute more towards the Make in India initiative, as the company would soon be launching some of their own brand products in the Biotech Industry. It would contribute to the economic growth as well as forex.

"Life is all about aspiration,

but it’s nothing if you don’t work for it."

- Dr. Nagma Abbasi

Dr. Nagma advises that if you wish to be an entrepreneur, then don’t set your heart at a job. Though it is really important for your survival and for learning experience, you should always keep your focus on your dreams. I worked for almost a decade before starting my own venture, but you don’t have to take so long.

Learn, observe and most importantly talk about what you feel. Try to expand your ideas and connect with the feel. One thing an entrepreneur should never be afraid of is a “failure”, it is the biggest teacher of your life. Success won’t be yours in one day; it needs a lot of motivation, patience and dedication. Keep learning and keep moving forward.

Every moment in your life teaches you something, it is up to an individual how they let it reflect in their profession. The thirst for learning new isn’t something that can be quenched, at least for Dr. Nagma Abbasi. If one chooses to be stagnant no matter what life offers, then you’ll remain in the same place. Everybody has something new to offer, just like research one should apply it rather than limit it to the papers. 

Note: This Article is published solely by Profectus Magazine after conducting the interview with concern person. All details published are based on true facts and discussion with concern person of the organization