ISB hosted an extremely engaging and thought-provoking discussion, moderated by Dr Krishan Kalra and Dr Srini Akkaraju, on the topic “Emerging Opportunities in Bio-Pharma and Life Sciences.” Many distinguished speakers presented their views on the future direction of the sector.

Dr Kris Kalra, Founder and CTO, BioGenex, initiated the discussion by presenting his vision of how New Drug Discovery (NDD) can “change the world” through public-private partnerships. He envisioned government sponsored Centres of Excellence which would work towards convergence of chem-bio-info-nano technologies and create a new paradigm in NDD. These steps could potentially reduce “bench-side to bedside” time to 7 years and costs to $100 million.

Dr Srini Akkaraju, Managing Director, Panorama Capital, gave a brief picture of the evolution of Indian Pharma from early opportunities in generics and contract manufacturing to future potential in new drug development. He mentioned that India holds the key to solving the global pharma crisis of R&D productivity and increased costs because next-generation business models are emerging here. His key message was – “Retain higher value”.

Mr Gene Williams, CEO, Cambridge HealthTech, gave further details of the problems ailing Big Pharma and suggested a few key areas where entrepreneurial opportunities abound for India. He also spoke at length about the emerging area of Translational Medicine as the key to reducing R&D costs and risks. He mentioned that outsourcing is not just about cutting costs but also about doing things better and doing them differently. This would help ensure that NDD fails less often and fails earlier in the process, so as to reduce risk.

Dr Krishna Ella, Founder, Bharat Biotech, spoke eloquently about a perceived lack of risk-taking ability in India and called for innovation as the key to economic growth. He highlighted the need to develop skills as well as applications to go with India’s enormous knowledge base.

Mr Sushil Handa, Founder & CEO, Claris Lifesciences, shared his journey from an inflection point in his life to the creation of a Rs. 400 cr. multinational company. He started by emphasising the fact that “empires are built by people who have nothing!” He also stressed on the need for the Indian entrepreneurs to focus on not just the regulated markets, but also the emerging as well as home markets.

The session was a glimpse into the entire ecosystem of Bio-Pharma, ranging from the entrepreneur to the venture capitalist and from the history to the future of the industry. The audience went back with a totally new perspective on the potential this emerging sector holds for the future.