Minister KTR opens 20th Edition of BioAsia in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The 20th Edition of BioAsia, Asia's largest Life Sciences and Healthcare Convention, on Friday kickstarted a riveting opening in the presence of global and national stalwarts. KT Rama Rao, Minister for Industries and Commerce & IT, Government of Telangana, inaugurated the mega event.

Day 1 of the three-day global forum witnessed active participation of government dignitaries, business executives, scientists, researchers, and other delegates of global repute. It is being organised with the theme, "Advancing for ONE: Shaping the next generation of humanised healthcare"

While inaugurating the Summit, KT Rama Rao, said, "The Covid-19 pandemic has proved the value of collaboration and its impact on people's wellbeing, when the world came together to overcome one of humanity's greatest healthcare challenges. Hence, BioAsia's theme Advancing for One to celebrate the spirit of collaboration and promoting human prosperity. I humbly acknowledge the growth of BioAsia, and I must say it has consistently played a crucial role in the development of Life Sciences industry in Telangana and India"

Commenting on the strides Telangana has made in the life sciences industry, he added, "We had set out a vision of doubling our ecosystem value to $100 billion by 2030. A lot of people felt that it was too ambitious. I am pleased to announce that the ecosystem value has already touched $80 bn in 2022. Given the current momentum, I am confident that we will achieve our target of $100 bn by 2025 itself, five years ahead of schedule. This represents a phenomenal ecosystem value growth in Telangana at a mindboggling 23 per cent over the last two years compared to the national average of about 14 per cent".

Speaking about his vision for Telangana's life sciences growth, he added, "Today, we have established our stature as the world's pre-eminent life sciences destination, but I don't want us to stop here. We have a unique opportunity to help reshape the future of the life sciences industry. We need to dream BIG. I envision that by 2030, the value of the life sciences ecosystem will cross $250 bn. Furthermore, I announce that we will work on a program to position Hyderabad as the "HEALTH-TECH Mecca" of the world. Through our various incubator programs, and access to deep computing resources, we will actively drive the convergence of Healthcare and Technology."

The spotlight was then shone on an interesting keynote address by Dr Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, Switzerland. In acknowledgement of the global healthcare conglomerate's growing presence in Hyderabad, he said, "15 years ago, I visited Hyderabad when we were just starting out here with an idea about building a capacity center; and then it grew multifold. Over the last 5 years, we doubled our presence here. We then brought the core of our drug development, data management, patient safety, manufacturing centers, procurement, people management and multiple senior roles here to Hyderabad.

Hyderabad is no longer a service center for Novartis, it is our corporate center, one of 3 in the whole world. I take tremendous pride in it, since it is not only a story of Hyderabad, but of India as well, that we can move up in the value chain. Because the talent in this country is second to none. It is an invitation to all the leaders in this room, to keep investments coming to India".