ICICI Knowledge Park, in association with CSIR, CII and the Government of Andhra Pradesh, would be holding a two-day international conference on 'Drug Discovery & Healthcare in the Knowledge Economy - India's Opportunities,' as part of the International Knowledge Millennium Conference 2002, at Taj Krishna, Hyderabad, on November 24 and 25, 2002.

The conference would discuss drug discovery and development, IT opportunities in drug industry, clinical trials, healthcare delivery and IPR& regulatory issues. The conference would be addressed by some of the leading national and international experts from the academia and industry. The participants of IKMC 2002 would include entrepreneurs, senior executives, scientists, NRIs, senior government officials and funding agencies.

The first meeting in the series of IKMC 2002 had been planned on Bioinformatics -- Information Revolution in Biology & Medicine on October 28 and 29, 2001. However, due to the September 11 crisis, the conference had to be postponed. While planning for the conference this year, based on inputs from different sources, the need to broaden the theme from bioinformatics to drug discovery was felt, according to a press release issued by the organisers.

ICICI Bank Ltd, along with the Government of Andhra Pradesh, had set up the ICICI Knowledge Park with the objective of promoting business driven R&D in India and developing knowledge-based industries in the country. As part of this commitment, ICICI Park would hold a series of International Knowledge Millennium Conferences (IKMC) as a bi-annual event in association with CSIR, CII and the AP Government, said the statement.