BioAsia 2014(February 17-19 2014,Hyderabad,India)

Innovations are the need of the hour across the world as today’s innovations hold a promise of better tomorrow. The world today is demanding cutting-edge innovations in Life sciences that promise to push boundaries as Bio-business holds immense opportunities. With the increasing disease burden, growing need for more efficient and affordable healthcare solutions, innovation holds the key and will drive the global life sciences economy in the coming years. The 11th edition of the unparalleled industry platform, the BioAsia will open with this most cogent theme – ‘Innovate. Evolve’ and will bring together the global leaders to deliberate on the path breaking innovations in the sector, not just in terms of the innovative products but also the models to cut down R&D cost while increasing efficiencies, innovative financing models, and offer excellent opportunity for new business ideas.

Global Innovation Landscape:
In any advanced economy - economic growth is inextricably linked to the capability for innovation. It has been established that low labour costs alone cannot sustain economic growth in a country, and there is a need for continual evolvement to sustain growth. Exploitation of enabling technologies, convergence among core technologies, and R&D funding and incentivizing are propellers that will shape the innovation landscape globally.

The innovation landscape in Life Sciences has been marked by the emergence of clusters. Geographically close groups of allied companies and associated institutions in a particular field, connected by common technologies and skills comprise “Clusters of innovation”. These are known to harness innovation by facilitating active exchange of ideas and capability amongst various stakeholders – companies, academia, research institutes and governments. These clusters further promote collaboration and enable companies to capitalize on external R&D.

Leveraging technology and analytics is another important component of innovation. Adoption of innovative approaches in R&D, including modeling, simulation and other statistical analysis tools is a key to progressive set-up. MNCs are increasingly investing in tools and concepts that simplify challenges that arise on a daily basis in R&D set-ups – to ensure coordination and harness innovation.

India – Where are we?
The Indian growth story in the Life Sciences space has been remarkable with pharmaceuticals expected to reach an estimated USD54 billion by 2020. Inspite of varied challenges that MNCs have encountered like the DPCO, 2013 which seeks to reduce the price of 348 drugs and a series of patent and data exclusivity rulings in the favour of compulsory licensing, the industry has managed to witness a continual growth trajectory. Fuelled primarily by exports and the generic industry – pharmaceuticals in India has seen positive growth both in terms of value and volume.

However the lure of the Para-IV landscape will decline in all probability coupled with the reduction in the number of mega patent expiries – eventually diminishing the generic opportunity. Indian companies therefore must build innovative strategies to combat the lack of exclusive opportunities and build a sustainable business model.

Indian companies will need to target focused R&D in the field to emerge as an innovation hub. Innovating with product portfolios is being witnessed increasingly in the Indian context. There has been a gradual trend of companies targeting their energy towards niche segments and products with higher level of complexity and technology. Companies are also exploring biosimilars.

India currently holds 3% of the global market after China and South Korea in the biosimilars segment. The global opportunity in the area is estimated at USD 5 billion by 2015. Indian companies should look at further building capabilities in this domain. Innovation also encompasses widening scope of therapeutic areas and looking to address emerging needs. Areas such a sports medicine, geriatric medicines, neutraceuticals etc are all boons of an increasingly aware populace whose demand needs to be met.

Another very important facet as India emerges as an innovation hub is drug delivery systems. Focus on delivery system-based products may emerge is an important area of growth.

Innovation is largely driven and incentivised by investments and funding. Globally – there is ample evidence of MNCs investing in new high value research platforms and delivery systems. Some of the Fortune 500 pharma companies have floated internal VC wings to invest in these areas - Merck Ventures and Novartis Venture Fund are key examples of such ventures. Indian companies could look at replicating this model to upgrade their research output.

In a nutshell, the focus of the BioAsia 2014 would be to establish the importance and means to achieve sustainability by capitalising on innovation. The sessions would focus on identifying key areas of growth and how innovation could reshape the existing landscape to make India an innovation hub. Over the ten editions, BioAsia has built up a formidable reputation for bringing together the entire universe of lifesciences face-to-face to discuss, analyse, showcase, explore and connect strengths, trends and perspectives in order to extend the visible horizons in thought, possibility and innovation. However, merely understanding the challenge from a global perspective and through global participation is not the goal of this dynamic platform. To that end, it is both incisive and all invasive, inviting the participation of who’s who of this industry, be it countries, pharmaceutical giants, regulatory authorities, thought-leaders, research scholars, trade experts and every other stakeholder of this industry.

Building a Science-Business Bridge:
In order to enable a Science-Business Bridge, BioAsia 2014 will bring together a trans-disciplinary environment for driving innovation in life science industry through a new initiative – Technology Conferences. With the aim of sowing the seeds for leveraging technology trends for business relationships, the platform will help channelize the technology in the development relay across the world through co-development opportunities. The event will focus on helping the innovators / scientists building capabilities to break the “Resistors” in the product development cycle for smooth flow of technology and collaborations.

Focus of the technology conferences will be on key growth areas for India and perhaps Asia, including the Medical Electronics and Devices, Bio-Energy, Bio-Informatics, Regenerative Medicine, Bio-Therapeutics, Drug Discovery and Personalized Medicine. While the technology conferences at BioAsia has been structured to focus on the R&D Value Chain approach, the sessions will focus on New Platform Technologies for cross leveraging, Relay Linked opportunities in development and application oriented content tuning.

BioAsia 2014 Attractions · 1500+ Participants · 1000+ Business Meetings · 650+ Corporates · 60+ Global Thought Leaders · 3 Day Networking Conference · 1 agenda INNOVATE. EVOLVE

Mr. Shakthi Nagappan, CEO, BioAsia said, “BioAsia has always been about coming together to discuss the most relevant and futuristic trends around Lifesciences. Exclusive and interesting topics pertaining to the need of the changing times have been discussed at this forum in the past. This year BioAsia takes another leap by bringing Innovation at the center stage of discussion”.

Life Science is an innovation intense industry. Traditionally, the Indian perhaps Asian life sciences businesses are centered around existing / established markets for their clearly defined products or services leaving very little space for experimentation, which to a great extent can be attributed to low risk appetite investor climate. However, the situation is changing and there is an increasing awareness that innovation is essential for sustenance and growth, even within established businesses. Hence, we are confident that the global business leaders, with demonstrated innovative capabilities coming together at BioAsia 2014 will add significant impetus to the India’s innovation path”

“BioAsia is playing an important role in mobilizing investments into the biotechnology arena of the country. It has emerged as a prominent platform for facilitating investments, exploring technology opportunities as well as research and innovations for the sector. Dept of Biotechnology is extremely happy to support this global event that has culminated into more wholistic discussion, debate and decision-making giving the much needed momentum to the growth of the biotech industry” Mr. Sreeshan Raghavan, Joint Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India

FABA, on behalf of the State Government of Andhra Pradesh & the Government of India, organizes the annual international lifesciences event BioAsia: The Global Biobusiness Forum. Over the years BioAsia has emerged as a Global Brand and has been offering a platform for convergence of the business leaders, policy makers, investors, etc. to bridge gaps between research organizations, government and industry in business strategy, partnership development and commercialization.

BioAsia 2014 scheduled to be organized tentatively during February 17-19, 2014 at Hyderabad, India with a focus on "Fostering Innovations in Lifesciences R&D". In addition, a parallel event will also be organized with special focus on Agri Biotechnology and Food Processing. Thought leaders and experts from across the globe would participate in this important event, which will feature Interactive sessions, CEO Conclave, Award ceremony, Business partnering, International Trade show, networking dinners, etc. For more information logon to: www.bioasia.in

contact：

BioAsia Secretariat
#204, Block-B, Imperial Apartments, Greenlands Circle, Ameerpet,
Hyderabad - 500 016, Andhra Pradesh, India
Tel: +91 (40) 6644 6477
Fax: +91 (40) 66446977