Bio-pharmaceutical and health science sector representatives from the UK are to explore and expand partnerships with Indian companies.
Mr Ian Felton, British Deputy High Commissioner, Bangalore, said: “The UK-India Innovation and Leadership Meeting will be held at IIM, Bangalore, on March 5 and 6 to encourage IP-protected research and innovation in health science, explore entrepreneurial opportunities.”
“The visiting UK delegation is here to sign up a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian counterparts to formalise their existing and fruitful science relationship,” he added.
UK representatives include Kings College London, Research Councils UK (RCUK), UK-India Business Council (UKIBC), Wellcome Trust, BioCity Nottingham and the University of Nottingham.
British companies attending include Critical Pharmaceuticals, UK, with a pipeline of novel biological products, Proxima Concepts, UK, offering oral delivery of peptides and proteins and technology for drug discovery, PGXis UK that is a genomics technology firm and Inception Associates UK that helps Indian firms in the sector, set up in the UK.
The 2012 Bio-Business Plan Competition is also being hosted by C-CAMP Bangalore and IIT Kanpur; finalists, who have attended a three-day Bio-Entrepreneurship and Business Development Training Programme delivered by BioCity Nottingham, will showcase their business concepts next week. The winner will receive a package of benefits worth around Rs 15 lakh to help them start a new company.
The meeting will showcase joint Indo-UK research, host winners of a bio-business plan competition and celebrate bio-entrepreneurial success stories in India.
“The meet will also discuss barriers and facilitators to innovation in the pharma industry and trends and developments in managing supply chains globally. I encourage Indian public and private research and development (R&D) institutions and entrepreneurs to come to the meeting and explore the potential to create new collaborations or expand existing links with the UK in this cutting-edge sector of bio-pharmaceuticals,” Mr Felton said.