The Hindu Business Line : Bangalore Bio to have big global presence

Bangalore, June 4 The ninth edition of Bangalore’s biotechnology event is to take place on June 18-20. Nearly 150 exhibitors from across the world, 700 delegates and 100 speakers are expected at this year’s Bangalore Bio, making it one of the biggest biotech trade shows of the region, according to the organisers. The flagship biotechnology promotion of the Karnataka Government in 2008 had 110 exhibitors and 600 delegates.

“After becoming an IT bellwether, India is now shifting its focus to the most promising industry of the future, biotechnology,” said Mr Ashok Kumar C. Manoli, Principal Secretary, IT, Biotechnology and Science & Technology.

“The main aim of this event is to market Karnataka overseas and get multinationals to collaborate with Indian companies. This will enable Indian companies to have an international platform for their business and showcase their products to a wide range of potential customers,” he said. The event is being organised by the State Department of IT, Biotechnology and Science and Technology and its Vision Group on Biotechnology.

Participating countries include the UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, Singapore, France, Australia, South Africa, the US, Italy and Spain. Among corporate participants are Biocon, Merck, Novozymes, Quintiles, BioRad, Mayar Biotech, Mawdsley Brooks & Co, Imperial Life Sciences, Waldner Laboratory Systems, Strand Genomics, Eppendorf India Ltd and Waters India.

Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh are also putting up a show.

The theme this year is ‘Biotechnology beyond boundaries – the promise of India’. Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD of Biocon Ltd and Chairman of Karnataka’s Vision Group on Biotechnology, said, “The economic downturn has forced biotech companies and countries to look at new ways of developing new biotechnology products. Affordable Innovation is the way forward and in this context it is Advantage India.”

A Bio-IP Zone brings together international and national intellectual property firms and the biotech industry. It will address issues related to technology licensing, valuation, patents, trademarks and copyright. It will help biotech companies to unlock the commercial value in their IPs.

Bio-partnering tool

A new feature will be an online bio-partnering tool that will enable delegates to connect with potential partners smoothly. The interactive portal is created by Technology Vision Group LLC, a leader in enabling international bio-partnering meetings.

Nobel laureate Dr Richard J. Roberts will be the inaugural keynote speaker. He won the 1993 Nobel Prize in physiology/ medicine for the discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA and the mechanism of gene-splicing.

According to the organisers, “Over the last eight years, the event has emerged as the Number 1 [biotechnology] platform and brought together national and international participants from the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, educational and financial sectors.”

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