India’s premier Biotech forum renowned for calibrating the pulse of the Biotechnology Industry concluded on a high today. The 3-days brought together global leaders from the life sciences sector for a comprehensive overview of this rapidly changing industry envisaging India as a 100 Billion US Dollar Biotech Hub. The event is organized by the Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka, Vision Group on Biotechnology, MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications.
Conveying his pleasure on the successful completion of the 13th edition, Shri. I.S.N. Prasad, IAS - Principal Secretary, Dept. of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka said, “We are very pleased with the outcome of this edition of Bangalore INDIA BIO. A number of future initiatives are being looked at to promote sustainable collaboration between different stakeholders committed to improving quality of life from across India and globally creating opportunities and encouragement for young scientists and researchers to engage in “Biotech for a better tomorrow.”
Further he said, “Karnataka is proud to be the pioneering state involved in promoting biotechnology in a big way. Collaborations and MoUs will play a significant role to demonstrate a collective commitment to ensure Karnataka and India are more competitive and continue to benefit from rapidly growing global Biotech Industry.”
Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw - Chairperson, Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology; Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon Limited, said, “Bangalore India Bio has grown in stature, we have seen a huge surge in number of delegates, numbers of country participation, the number of forums we have created within this conference, the partnering forums, the poster sessions, both the exhibition and the conference have taken a new hue. It has evolved with times, it has become far more professional, far more serious. We are using this as a platform for all stakeholders to really address some of the key challenges and issues that the Indian Biotech sector faces, the challenges in terms of International perception. I think it’s making a huge difference to how the Indian Biotech sector is now being perceived.”
Commenting on the event Dr. K. Vijay Raghavan - Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, said, “Entrepreneurs in Biotech space, Government and the academia need to work together and Bangalore India Bio has a very invigorating environment to see that happen.”
Mr. David Wetherell, President and Chief Operating Officer, Burrill Healthcare Venture and Private Equity Funds, USA said, “Its been a great experience at Bangalore India Bio. Clearly in India, you probably have the greatest concentration of human & intellectual capital in the world and lot of this is concentrated in Bangalore. This has come out very clearly in Bangalore INDIA BIO.”
Some of the key highlights of Bangalore India Bio 2013:
Three industry reports released - (a) "Indian Biotechnology: The roadmap to the Next Decade and beyond by ABLE (b) “Opportunities for Fermentation Industry & Biotechnology” by ABLE and (C) Report on “Funding Your Science Idea” of Atharva Life Sciences Consulting.
Two MoUs were signed with KBITS (Govt. of Karnataka), One by Scottish Development International (SDI), an international economic development arm of the Scottish Government and the other by the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Consisted of 22 Sessions with 110 Speakers, 878 Delegates, over 500 Organisations participated.
100 Exhibitors from various verticals of Life Sciences Industry like biopharmaceuticals, bio-suppliers, bio-informatics, bio-medical devices participated in the Exhibition and attracted over 3000 plus business visitors.
The gathering was attended by delegates from more than 20 countries including Scotland, USA (Georgia), Canada (Alberta) & Australia (Victoria) and also from Atlanta, Missouri from USA, Germany, UAE, France, UK, Spain, Israel, Mexico, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore and European and South East Asia countries.
7 Indian States that participated in the Exhibition include Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Haryana and Assam.
Bangalore INDIA BIO 2013 facilitated 372 B2B meetings through the Bio Partnering tool – InterlinX.
Distinguished Speakers at Bangalore INDIA BIO 2013 included Dr.Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson, Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology; Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon Limited; Prof. K. Vijay Raghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, Prof. Charles ffrench-Constant, Director, Centre of Regenerative Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, Charles French, Dr. Karen Bernstein - Co-Founder & Chairman, BioCentury, USA, Prof. Anil K. Gupta, Executive Vice Chairperson, National Innovation Foundation – India, Professor of Indian Institute of Management (IIMA), Prof. David Koelle, Professor of Medicine, Adjunct Professor, Global Health and Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington; Affiliate Investigator, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Affiliate investigator, Benaroya Research Institute, USA.
The Fireside Chat–introduced this year featured a high-profile discussion bringing together a strong line-up of Speakers from leading life sciences companies like Bio Century–USA, Biocon & Novartis India to discuss “India’s challenges in being preferred as the Global Biotech Hub.”
CEO Conclave featured another high-profile panel with the heads of industry from Biocon, Strand Life Sciences, Sea6 Energy, AstraZeneca, Quintiles, IKP Knowledge Park and Pfizer.
The prestigious Bio-Excellence Awards were presented as follows - Biopharma & Health Care category Serum Institute of India Ltd. bagged the award and Stempeutics Research Pvt. Ltd. bagged the Emerging Company of the year award. In the Agri-Biotechnology category Metahelix Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd. bagged the award. In the Bioservices category Quintiles Research India Pvt. Ltd. bagged the award and the emerging company award was bagged by Anthem Biosciences Pvt. Ltd. Bio-Industrial category was bagged by Praj Industries. In the Bioinformatics & Systems Biology categories, Award winner was Strand Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd. and the Emerging Company of the year was Xcelris Labs. Exhibition awards were also presented.
The Poster Presentations, where-in, young minds are given an opportunity to showcase their innovative ideas. Over 45 entries were received, of them 35 posters were selected. The best poster awards were bagged by Mr. G. Suhasa of B.M.S.College of Engineering, Bangalore, Mr. Neeraj Kumar Garg from Punjab University won second place and third places were bagged by Ms. Pavithra N of PES Institute of Technology. A special Recognition was given to Ms. Nisha G.J of Dayanada Sagar College of Engineering and Ms. Nidhi Malviya of Al-Ameen College of Pharmacy.
An inspiring workshop was conducted by NSRCL- IIM Bangalore to nurture entrepreneurial opportunities in Biotechnology a boon especially for aspiring bio-entrepreneurs and researchers.
Preliminaries of state level ‘BioQuiz 2013’ was conducted across Karnataka where-in large number of students participated and the four finalists battled it out in the Grand Finale of ‘BioQuiz 2013’. The awards were presented by Former Indian cricketer Anil Kumble. The 1st place was won by Arun Panchapakesan & Vijay Ramesh from R.V. College of Engineering Bangalore. The 2nd place was won by St. Aloysius College, MANGALORE represented by Gunjan Gupta & Sulakshana K. The 3rd place was won by University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, Belgaum represented by Shwetha Kumari and Sambhavana. The 4th place was bagged by Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE), Mysore represented by Sheshadri SA and Chandan Pande.
For more information on Bangalore INDIA BIO 2013, visit http://www.bangaloreindiabio.in
