Bangalore Bio 2007 Concludes

Business Wire, June 9, 2007

Drives Business Through International Partnerships, Innovation and Thought Leadership

BANGALORE, India -- The Bangalore Bio 2007's theme - "Think BIG - Biotechnology Innovation Growth" successfully concluded today with over 81 national and international speakers (33), 625 conference delegates, 30,000 visitors (12000 business and 15000 student & general interest group), 152 exhibitors, from over 12 countries, eleven States of India, convened at this premier annual event for the biotechnology industry. This was the seventh edition of the Bangalore-Bio and attracted large delegations from leading biotech countries including State of Victoria, Australia, UK, France, Germany, Holland, UK, USA, South Korea, Singapore and Spain, and Bavaria.

Indian companies like Avesthagen, Biocon, Histogenetics, Biozeen, GE Healthcare, and States like Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh to name a few, participated in large numbers.

Mr. Vidyashankar, Secretary to Government, Department of IT and BT, Government of Karnataka, said, "The seventh edition of Bangalore Bio has indeed had a successful run. True to the theme of innovation and growth, the event created a platform to forge ahead on various issues of R&D, Life Sciences Informatics, ethics in Clinical Trials to name a few and build partnerships. The venue of BIEC provided the ideal environment for B2B interaction, and the exhibition and conference being held at the same venue allowed the participants to be present at the both locations in a seamless manner. Bangalore Bio has been the first to initiate a focus on Agri-biotech day in 2006. This year brought to the forefront critical agri-biotech issues such as food productivity for India, which was addressed for the next ten years."

Highlights of the event:

* Several country partnership initiatives took place between Indian companies and research institutes through a series of meetings with delegations from UK, France, Holland, Germany, US and Australia

* Avesthagen Signs Pact with Government of Andhra Pradesh: Avestha Gengraine Technologies has signed a MoU with the Andhra Pradesh Government for an additional 50 acres of land in the state's Biotech park. The company is planning two manufacturing units in Hyderabad. One is Avestha Biotherapeutics & Research which will manufacture bio similar products. The other is Avestha Good Earth which will manufacture bio-nutricals.

* Biocon and Deakin University MoU: Biocon signed a memorandum of understanding with Deakin University, Victoria, Australia, for joint multi-disciplinary research focused on biotechnology and biosciences. The MoU will also lead to establishment of Deakin Resort Institute in Bangalore, joint development of a mammalian cell bio-processing facility in Australia and result in Deakin undertaking research in metabolic diseases for Biocon.

* One of the highlights of this year's event was the Poster Session; where in over 35 papers were presented by young scientists and innovators. Overall, the Bangalore Bio 2007 facilitated over 500 one-to-one business meetings for potential collaborations, partnerships & alliances.

* Biotalent zone hosted career interactive session. Career interactive session is being held for the third consecutive year. It is platform that addresses and allows potential employers to meet and recruit candidates.

* Many young researchers and scientists from leading Indian and International research laboratories like, CSIR, ICAR, DAE, DBT, DST participated in Bangalore Bio 2007.

One of the exhibitors, CSIR-IGIB- Jalaja Stall stated, "We attracted a lot of Business interest, and responses for all CSIR original research products. There was a lot of interest from a host of international companies, research institutes, corporate, pharmaceutical companies who were interested in the GENO-CLUSTER bioinformatics products in their research work and have come forward to work in joint development, collaborative work, customization of the GENOCLUSTER to their needs. Everybody and their companies appreciated the efforts of CSIR-IGIB-Jalaja in developing these cutting edge Bioinformatics Bio R&D tools. Some of these companies were to name a few MERCK USA, Victoria University, Synertec Australia, E2Bioxcel, Harward University, USA, Johnson & Johnson Australia, Aurigene", etc.

"Victoria University has shown interest In having a collaborative development and training program with the CSIR-IGIB-Jalaja for their Ph.d program which is under consideration," he concluded.

Marketing official of Kewaunee Labway, here to display end-to-end capabilities for world class scientific laboratories, stated, "As one of the leading players in this space, we always are keen to participate in Bangalore Bio events. We have a good response and it has been and excellent exercise in brand building."

Canara Bank official stated, "Bangalore Bio is an excellent platform for exhibition. There have been over 20 companies that we have received as leads for our SME sector and agriculture finance schemes. We will certainly support this event in the coming years".