BioAsia 2017 is all set to provide a big platform for innovators in biotechnology and related sectors in Hyderabad. The 14th edition of the three-day event, which will be held at Hyderabad International Convention Center (HICC) from February 6-8, will be having multiple conferences simultaneously. “This year we will be having five different conferences at BioAsia that will go on simultaneously on various fields in the biotechnology sector. These include innovation, automation in diagnostics, digital health and healthcare IT, health and access and manufacturing conferences, “says Shakti Nagappan, CEO of BioAsia.
The government of Telangana, which is a major partner of the event, along with the Federation of Asian Biotech Association (FABA) and Pharmexcil is pulling out all stops to make this event a big success. “BioAsia is a big platform for us to showcase our potential resources and attract prospective investors to set up their businesses in the state. In fact we want to make Hyderabad the biotechnology hub of India and in this direction we have taken some land mark initiatives of setting up Hyderabad Pharma City, the Genome Valley and Medical Devices Park. We will give the highest priority for the development of industrial sector in the state and we will do what all we can to achieve holistic development of the state,” said K. Taraka Rama Rao, Industries, Commerce, IT and MAUD Minister, government of Telangana.
This time BioAsia is aiming to bring together a trans-disciplinary environment for driving innovation in the life sciences industry and focusing more on bridging science with business. This is clearly evident from the incorporation of technology conference as one of the biggest highlights of this year’s event. The tech conferences has been carefully structured in order to leverage technology trends for business relationships and help technology innovators to get into the realm of development relay across the world through co-development opportunities.
BioAsia is not only expected to present an opportunity to explore partnerships and channels for extending businesses between industry and academia, but the tech conferences are also designed to cover contemporary developments in research and capacity building.
Dwelling upon India’s strength in pharmaceuticals and vaccine manufacturing capabilities, Dr. Krishna M. Ella, CMD, Bharat Biotech International Ltd, says
"BioAsia over the years has been instrumental in showcasing the life sciences and R&D strengths of Hyderabad to the world particularly the presence of Genome Valley – the largest industrial cluster in country. India is an excellent destination for biotech/biopharma industries. Hyderabad is the biggest manufacturer of biotech products and vaccines in the country and this explains the focus of BioAsia on elements like policy, strategy and markets."
However, experts also feel that India’s innovation sector is lagging far behind compared to other advanced countries. At present, though India’s generic drug manufacturing industry constitutes 10 per cent of the volume of the global pharmaceutical industry, but still it is valued only at 1.4 per cent globally. Therefore they felt that innovation is the only key to success and companies need to rapidly innovate to create more value, gain strategic advantage, and to stay ahead in the international market.
“Most companies have already recognized the need for innovation and made significant attempts to do so, yet most of them have miserably failed at it because of an incorrect understanding of how innovation works. It should not be taken as a one-time attempt rather it needs to be incorporated as part of their system which will help them drive on a continuous innovation path,” says, Dr. Chandrasekhar, CSIR-IICT Hyderabad.
With an aim to boost innovations in the biotechnology and allied sectors in the country, this year’s the organizers have designed the Innovation Conference , which is expected to bring together some of the world’s foremost Innovation thinkers and leaders to provide insights on structured approach to innovation and how companies can transform their thinking to identify new avenues for success. This conference will also be addressing the challenges faced by life sciences firms with regard to regulatory, quality and taxation etc.
Apart from innovation conference, BioAsia 2017 will also be hosting a Manufacturing Conference, where in key stake holders from the life sciences sector are expected to explore how the manufacturing industry in pharma, biotech and medtech can help propel India’s growth to the next level. “Despite impressive advances in the field of diagnostics and vaccination, world is facing the threat of emerging diseases and as India continues to be a leading market for diagnostics, laboratories are experiencing challenges, such as increased testing volume, shortage of qualified and skilled labour, slow results and turnaround time, changing testing demands, inefficient processes and under-performing equipment that needs to be addressed through concerted efforts and BioAsia is an apt platform for the firms to gather together and delve up on the issues and come out with solutions,” says Shakti Nagappan.
The Automation in Diagnostics conference will bring together PoC users, regulators, diagnostic companies and suppliers to discuss on the future of rapid testing, automation challenges, quality control, legislation, diagnostics, and the future of PoCT going forward.
Another event, the confluence of healthcare and technology in the form of digital health is the key pillar with which the healthcare management can be made more efficient. While significant inroads have been made in the use of digital health and healthcare IT initiatives globally, these applications are still in a nascent stage in India. E-health initiatives under the Government of India’s Digital Health program, aimed at addressing the healthcare gap in the country, are slowly but surely revolutionizing the public health scenario in the country. Coupled with the large number of start-ups that are driving the penetration of technology in the healthcare sector, this joint public- private focus on digital is paving the way for the future.
To highlight all these issues, the Digital Health and Healthcare IT conference is expected to converge, leaders from the healthcare and technology sector to explore and exchange ideas for India’s digital future.
To discuss the problems in healthcare access and service delivery, BioAsia 2017 is also bringing together healthcare administrators, policy makers, infection control practitioners, regulators, insurers and other stakeholders to discuss issues of Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) and Antibiotic Resistance (AR) and give a guidance to the industry for implementation of best practices to improve the quality of healthcare and ensure predictable outcomes.
“If we accept that quality improvement can make a difference in healthcare service delivery and management, we should look at how we can make this happen on a large scale and what the determinants are for the successful introduction of quality improvement approaches. Although quality improvement is already an aim of the vast majority of health sectors, there are still numerous problems linked to the introduction of approaches in developing countries. In many countries, the choice of quality approaches is based on prejudice rather than a rational decision-making process; consequently, they are often not adapted to the country’s demand. One of the major impediments of quality in healthcare in India today is poor hygiene and infection prevention and control,” says a healthcare expert from hospital industry.
Overall, BioAsia 2017, is expected to bring together some of the top influential executives from global pharma and biotechnology powerhouses such as Dr. Paul Stoffels, Worldwide Chairman of Pharmaceuticals and Chief Scientific Officer from Johnson & Johnson, Vasant Narasimhan, Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer from Novartis, Dr. Patrick Vallance, President Worldwide Pharmaceuticals, R&D from GSK, among many others.
This year, the organizers of BioAsia are expecting more than 1,500 delegates from across 50 countries. “We are expecting a huge number of delegates from 800 corporate across the globe. About one 100 high profile speakers will give presentations and deliberate on various topics of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and healthcare during the three- day event,” informed Shakthi Nagappan.
Mr. Narayana Murthy, Founder of Infosys, Prof. Kurt Wuthrich, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Scripps Research Institute, USA, Dr. Satish Reddy, Chairman of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Dr. Shailesh Ayyangar, Managing Director India and VP South Asia of Sanofi, Mr. BVR Mohan Reddy, Founder & Executive Chairman of CYIENT and Former Chairman of Nasscom, Zenia Tata, Executive Director of Global Development & International Expansion, XPRIZE from USA, Dr. Murtaza Khorakiwala, Managing Director of Wockardt, S. Sridhar, Managing Director of Pfizer India, Sanjiv Navangul, Managing Director of Janssen India, KG Ananthakrishnan, Managing Director of MSD India, Srini Srinivasan, Managing Director of Hospira India, are some of the leading industry leaders who are expected to take part in the BioAsia event.