Bangalore: 2012 is expected to turn out to be a  promising year ahead for biotech and life sciences as predicted by biotech visionary Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company. Burrill says,"Life sciences companies faced challenges in 2011 from complex and rapidly changing capital markets, uncertainty with regulatory issues, and a reimbursement system that has grown increasingly hostile toward innovations. "Nevertheless, the ongoing turmoil within the pharmaceutical industry, as well as the need to find ways to boost our agricultural productivity and develop new sources of renewable fuel and chemicals, is creating unparalleled opportunities for the biotech industry."

Burrill makes the following predictions for life science sector for 2012:

Fundraising: 2011 has been a year of investments as most public and private life science companies raised a fund which was up to $76.2 billion. The ongoing volatility in the market is not very promising for the companies which want to raise their fund through public markets but the market will slowly gain stability and will be favorable for investments in 2012. In 2012, many biotech companies are said to go public through initial public offering (IPO) to raise expansion funds. More IPO activity is expected the coming year. Consumer based technology companies will be the ones topping the list of the IPOs. About 25 life sciences companies are expected to hit the listings in 2012.

Private investments in life sciences will exceed around 10 percent in 2012. Traditional funding by venture capitals, angel capitals, and other private sources of funding will continue to be the major sources of investments. Traditional venture investors will be funding more for exploration of areas in medical science ranging from therapeutics to other areas of healthcare.  More funds will be allotted for medical device sector to benefit particularly the aging population for more wireless devices.

2012 will witness a major lift in M&A (mergers and acquisitions) as several small-medium bio tech companies are gearing up activity for combined research and products which will pose as a competition for the big players in the industry. They will have to continue to distinguish sectors under them based on pharmaceutical, biotech, generic, biosimilars, and diagnostics. And one of the ways to achieve this is through aggressive buying of innovative companies.