The 13th edition of the Bangalore India Bio 2013 concluded with the Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology looking forward to the required regulations coming through from the Union government.

The three-day event had 22 sessions with 110 speakers, 878 delegates, over 500 organisations. There were 100 exhibitors from various verticals of Life Sciences Industry like biopharmaceuticals, bio-suppliers, bioinformatics, bio-medical devices who participated in the exhibition and attracted over 3,000 plus business visitors.

India’s premier biotech forum was organised by the Department of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka, Vision Group on Biotechnology and MM Activ Sci-Tech Communications.

“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 across India and globally creating opportunities for young scientists to engage in biotechnology,” said ISN Prasad, Principal Secretary, Dept. of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka.

“The event has evolved with times. 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,” said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw - chairperson, Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology; chairman & managing director, Biocon Limited.

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.”

The Bio-Excellence Award winners were:  Serum Institute of India Ltd for the best  Biopharma & Health Care industry 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.

The Poster Presentations winners were G Suhasa of BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore, Neeraj Kumar Garg from Punjab University,  Pavithra N of PES Institute of Technology. A special Recognition was given to Nisha G.J of Dayanada Sagar College of Engineering and Nidhi Malviya of Al-Ameen College of Pharmacy.

A workshop was conducted by NSRCL- IIM Bangalore to nurture entrepreneurial opportunities in Biotechnology a boon especially for aspiring bio-entrepreneurs and researchers.

‘BioQuiz 2013’ awards were presented by India’s former cricketer Anil Kumble. Winners were Arun Panchapakesan and Vijay Ramesh from R V College of Engineering Bangalore. The second place was won by St. Aloysius College, Mangalore represented by Gunjan Gupta and Sulakshana K. The third place was won by University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, Belgaum represented by Shwetha Kumari and Sambhavana. The fourth place was bagged by Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE), Mysore represented by Sheshadri SA and Chandan Pande.