A French delegation of 5 leading healthcare clusters - Medicen Santé (Paris), Lyon Bio Pôle (Rhône Alpes), Innovation Thérapeutiques (Alsace), Biothérapies (Pays de la Loire) and Orphême (Languedoc Rousillon, Provence -Alpes-Côte d'Azur) - and 15 biotech companies would participate in the Bangalore Bio 2008.

According to UBIFRANCE, the objective of the visit of the French delegation is to get a better understanding of the biotechnology sector in India and identify research partners among public-private organisations. The French healthcare clusters will also be accompanied by life science companies.

The team will present a symposium titled "fast track R&D partnering with France", which will be held on April 24. The seminar will provide an overview of the ongoing research projects. The topics will include "colon and breast cancer bio markers", "technology boosting immunity", "molecular and cellular biotyping" and "transluminal surgery".

In addition to the clusters, the French pavilion at the exhibition would bring together 15 companies under one roof. The aim of the display is to promote the technologies, products and services developed by the companies in France and scout for suitable partnerships from Indian companies.

Some of the leading companies that would visit Bangalore Bio include Pierre Fabre, a specialist in dermo-cosmetics and oncology which has been active in India since 2002, Lesaffre International group, a world leader in yeast extract products for food and biopharmaceutical industry, Voisin Consulting, a company having expertise in design and implementation of innovative regulatory strategies, and Vivalis, which is known for innovative technologies in the area of vaccines.

Other participating companies include independent enterprises like Clean Cells, Clestra Cleanroom, CIT, Eurofins-ADME Bioanalyses, Imaxio, Incell Art, SACI-CFPA and Solabia as well as regional development organisations like Paris Development (Paris), Aderly (Lyon) and Alsace Biovalley

(Alsace Region).