FABA, UoH hold summit on biotech innovation

Hyderabad: The Federation of Asian Biotech Associations (FABA) and the University of Hyderabad, with the support of the Institute of Eminence, hosted the Whale Tank 2.0 Summit on Sunday. It served as a premier platform for advancing life sciences.

According to UoH officials, this groundbreaking event united global investors, industry leaders, and visionary innovators to explore the next frontiers in biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, digital health, AI in drug discovery, and agri-tech.

Innovative startups took centre stage, presenting a range of transformative solutions, including Beable Health's Armable brain therapy device, Arthro Biotech's insect protein feed, and MedvPlus's advanced paediatric OCT technology. The event highlighted pioneering developments from companies, such as UR Advanced Therapeutics with their de novo peptides and VeGen's precision oncology solutions.

Round-table discussions during the summit highlighted critical themes such as global collaborations, industry-academia interactions, and ecosystem enablers, addressing India’s role in biotech innovation and the challenges in drug discovery.

Awards presented

The event celebrated significant achievements with awards: Dr Reema Rawat received the NATCO Pharma Award for her Cervicare device; the Dr Y Subbarow GEM Doctoral Student Award was jointly awarded to Sandeep for his BiSpekDAbTM research; and Pragya Gupta for her work on foetal haemoglobin regulation. Additionally, the FABA Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Professor Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former Chief Scientist at WHO and former DG of ICMR, currently Principal Advisor at MoHFW and Dr B S Bajaj Memorial.

The FABA Excellence Award went to Dr Rahul Purwar, Associate Professor, IIT Bombay, and Founder and CEO of Immuno ACT, said a senior UoH officer.