BioSpectrum Technology Forum 2012 (BSTF) in Delhi saw the industry leaders getting together on the theme: “Game Changers in Drug Discovery & Development�. This was the third leg of the one-day BSTF series that brings together R&D leaders of the bioscience industry. The first two legs of the series were held in Bangalore and Mumbai, respectively. The sessions spanned diverse topics ranging from stem cells and gene therapy, to next generation innovation, public private partnerships, and computer-aided drug discovery.

The discussion on public private partnerships was an addition to the Forum agenda keeping in view the role such partnerships are playing in taking the industry further and its enormous potential. The panel discussion on “public private partnerships� was chaired by Dr Ravi Dhar, Senior Consultant, BIRAP, DBT.

The conference was opened by Dr Renu Swarup, Senior Adviser, Department of Biotechnology, who in her opening address elaborated on the BIRAP initiatives for the industry and how industry can benefit from these. Dr VK Vinayak, an industry veteran and CSO, Biologicals at Panacea Biotec, gave his perspective on the research direction the industry needs to take and also tied-up and summarized the key points from the industry. The industry leaders shared their perspective and insights across the range of topics. Many of you missed the action. However, we are not putting in a full report here, it will be available on our website, in a month or so, when the BioSpectrum new online platform goes live.

BSTF 2012 at Delhi was supported by: Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and Spinco Biotech.

	Nandita Singh, Editor, BioSpectrum, welcomes the panelists and delegates
	Dr VK Vinayak, industry expert & CSO Biologicals, Panacea Biotec, and a panelist at the event, sets the tone for discussion
	Dr Renu Swarup, Sr Advisor, DBT, gives the inaugural address

	Dr Venkatesh Ponemone, Fortis- Totipotentrx Centre for Cellular Medicine
	Dr Mrinalini Chaturvedi, Cryo Banks International
	Dr Alka Sharma, Department of Biotechnology
	Dr Navin Khanna, Gene Recombinant Lab, ICGEB
	Dr Geetha Vani Rayasam, Open Source Drug Discovery, CSIR
	Dr Alok Adholeya, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
	Dr VL Ramprasad, Spinco
	Dr Ravi Dhar, BIRAP, DBT
	Jitendra Verma, Lifecare Innovations
	Mr Pankaj Sharma, LeadInvent
	Parul Saxena, Jamia Hamdard University
	Mr Sahil Kapoor, Novo Informatics
	Dr B Jayaram, IIT, Delhi
	Prof Indira Ghosh, Jawahar Lal Nehru University