Bangalore – Tuesday 5th February 2013: Bangalore India Bio 2013 (BIB 2013) – India’s premier Biotech Show organised by the department of Information Technology, Bio-Technology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka and the Vision Group on Biotechnology, featured a CEO CONCLAVE on day 1 discussing on “Can India become a 100 Billion Dollar Biotech Hub by 2025”. The session was Anchored by Ms. Mini Menon – Executive Editor, Bloomberg TV and the Panelists were Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw-Chairperson, Karnataka Vision Group on Biotechnology; Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon Limited, Dr. Vijay Chandru – Chairman & CEO, Strand Life Sciences, Mr. Shrikumar Suryanarayan – Chairman and Co-founder, Sea6 Energy Pvt. Ltd., Honorary Director-General, ABLE, Dr. Sudhir Nambiar – Managing Director, AstraZeneca India Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Anil Raghavan – Managing Director, Quintiles India, Ms. Deepanwita Chattopadhyay – Managing Director & CEO, IKP Knowledge Park, Dr. Ajith V. Kamath – Head, Strategic Research Partnerships, India, External R&D Innovation, Worldwide Research & Development, Pfizer Inc., Brief Remarks & a Vote of Thanks was given by Mr. Tapash Chakraborty – Vice President, Business Development, Mayar Infrastructure Development Pvt. Ltd.,
Opening the session Ms. Mini Menon, posed the question to the panel – “What are the factors that can lead India to become a US 100 billion Biotech hub by 2025?”
Dr. Ajith V. Kamath, said “That vision can only happen by collaboration and early learning. Having been in the company for 15 years, only in the past 7-8 months have visited various companies to understand all the aspects involved in every company that are unique to each. differentiation of products is a very important aspect, for the development.”
Mr. Anil Raghavan, said, “We started out in 1997, our experience and understanding of the sector says “100 billion dollars is an achievable task.” Good quality of medical research and advancement in bioinformatics along with innovation is going to be the key. Citing the example of Information & Technology, he said, “When the chips and loses were enormous, the government of India, organisations and institutions like NIIT and the IITs came together to pull things up. The biotech industry also needs that kind of a support.”
Ms. Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, said, “earlier when we started it was a Mid sized companies, but right now there are over 600 scientists across all sectors of biotech. Our main agenda is to create a whole ecosystem and environment to promote innovation. International collaborations are absolutely critical from the Indian Biotech Industry’s point of view.”
Dr. Sudhir Nambiar, said, “We are confident that the vision of reaching the mark of US $100 billion is not a big amount for a country like India. Astrazeneca started about 25 years ago in India. At that time we required proper planning, future visions and the development was unstructured. We needed a comprehensive plan to surge ahead. India too needs a comprehensive plan to succeed. The main problems according to him was the knowledge deficit in drug discovery. India may be strong in other sciences but was really weak in biology and this was because of the shaky structure of the education system, and due to the syllabus followed in Indian universities and colleges right now is the same as it was 10years back.”
Dr. Vijay Chandru stressing on the US$ 100 Billion vision, he said, “Innovation is the key. I the innovations are there then this is a very much a doable thing. Just as there was a Y2K moment in IT. When will that kind of moment for BT come by? But when it comes it wont be US$ 100 billion dollars but US$ 1000 billion dollars. Biotechnology has that kind of potential.”
Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, said, “a strategic roadmap is required and for this the capital based industries as well as the academics are required to come together.”
Mr. Shrikumar Suryanarayan, said, “India could breeze past 100 billion US dollar mark. India produces 180 million tons of bio wastes which inturn can produce 40 Billion litres of fuel. India’s biggest problem is not the shortage of economy (infrastructure, financial support) but shortage of production capacity of biomass.” He commented jokingly “lets grow plants in sea.”
Giving the closing Remarks & Vote of Thanks, Mr. Tapash Chakraborty, said, “India truly has a bright future for Biotechnology in India and the USD 100 Billion by 2025 mark should be possible.
For more information on Bangalore INDIA BIO 2013, visit http://www.bangaloreindiabio.in