AIC-LMCP Foundation (Atal Incubation Centre hosted by L. M. College of Pharmacy, supported by Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, New Delhi) and e-Chai hosted the second edition of “Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Innovation Summit 2.0” in association with Institutes Innovation Council by MHRD, Student Startup and Innovation Policy, L.M. College of Pharmacy and Headstart. The event was held on 12th October 2019, Saturday, at GIDC Bhavan, CEPT University, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad. There were more than 110 innovators, students, faculty, startups, and professionals from the ‘Pharmaceutical and Healthcare sector’ who participated in the event.
As a part of its commitment towards developing the startup and innovation ecosystem and facilitating an innovator’s journey from innovative idea to commercialization, AIC-LMCP Foundation conceived this event to give a platform for budding entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas, to get an insight into the trends in the market in the specific sector as well as to know about the journey of successful startups including their secret sauce and the challenges overcome.
Dr. M.T. Chhabria, Principal LMCP, opened the Summit with introductory remarks for the summit, where he briefed about the rich entrepreneurial history of LMCP and its contribution to Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Research and entrepreneurship. He also motivated the budding innovators and elaborated about various initiatives that LMCP has such as the Institutional Innovation Council, Student Startup and Innovation Policy (GoG), and AIC-LMCP Foundation as the incubation Centre by giving details about how AIC-LMCP can facilitate translation of an innovative idea into a business.
He also briefed about the recently concluded pre-accelerator program (12-Sep-2019 to 04-Oct-2019) conducted by AIC-LMCP Foundation, which had specific interactive sessions on how to validate the business idea, Product Development, ‘Go to market’ strategy, Legal and IP workshop, Creating an effective business plan and Investor’s perspective.
Dr. Shivaprakash R.; MD, Synchron Research was the speaker to initiate. He described the core business fundamentals and his success story with various challenges encountered. He also pinpointed the current challenges that are faced by an entrepreneur who wants to come up with a sustainable business in highly regulated Pharmaceutical and Healthcare sectors.
Dr. Lakshmikanth Gandikota; VP, Innovation Science and Technology Pharmaceuticals – Biopharma Division, discussed about the innovation in biologics and cutting age cell and gene therapy.
Ms. Archa Khandelwal; Senior analyst, O2h discussed about the upcoming sectors such as AI in drug discovery and development as well as the strategy to evaluate research-based startups.
Dr. Pravin Parmar coordinated the question and answer session where the participants could interact with the Speakers to clarify their queries around the theme.
Five different Startups – Shira MedTech, ReMed+, Nuvomlogic, Unitech Enterprise and Exocare – showcased their innovation in front of the audience and got certain insights as well as constructive interaction with the audience and experts. This session was moderated by Mr. Roshan from e-Chai.
This session was followed by a unique panel discussion with founders of rising startups – Dr. Amit Gupta; Founder, Airmed Pathology Ltd; Dr. Maulik Mistry, Founder, Orange Nutraceuticals; Mr. Sanjay Patel, Founder, ExcelonIP and Dr. Arpit Patwari, Partner, PharmAce Research services – participating as the panelists. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Pravin Parmar which deliberated on sharing the journey of these rising startups, challenges encountered by each of them, and what are the future perspectives for entrepreneurs in the specific sector. There was great enthusiasm in the audience as they could connect their experiences with the experiences shared by the panelists and some of the experts pitching in in the lively discussion.
About Speakers
Dr. M. T. Chhabria
Principal, LMCP, He has completed his M.Pharm, Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from L. M. College of Pharmacy. Presently he is the Principal of L. M. College of Pharmacy. He has 26 years of teaching and research experience and 1.5 years of industrial experience. His expertise is in the New drug discovery using CADD technique. He has more than 75 Research Publications in national and international journals, 4 Indian patents, a Book Chapter and more than 50 invited talks to his credit. He has guided more than 125 MPharm and 7 Ph.D. scholars. He is the Reviewer of 4 international scientific journals.
He has been instrumental in getting several State and Central Government Grants worth over INR 10 crores including those from SSIP, Govt. of Gujarat, and from AIM, NITI Aayog, Govt. of India.
He is a fellow of the Indian Chemical Society (FICS) and a Fellow of Gujarat Science Academy (FGSA).
He is a Member of the Board of Studies/Senate Member for different reputed institutions and universities in Gujarat and Rajasthan. He is the Life Member of AMA and APTI.
Dr. Shivprakash Rathnam
MD, Synchron Research, He served Zydus and Sun pharma in various capacities in the area of Pharmacology and Drug Discovery. He started his own company Synchron Research Services Pvt. Ltd. which is the first CRO in India in Private Sector. He started INTERVEIN, a central lab for clinical trials in and was the Founder Chairman of the company. He also started Avance Phytotherapies for alternative therapies for neglected diseases. He incepted Novelgenix in 2011 a niche generic company for regulated markets. He is the former Chief Editor of the Indian Journal of Pharmacology. He has more than 60 research papers published in various international and national journals. He is the President of the Indian Pharmacological Society (2019-2021).
Dr. Lakshmikanth Gandikota
VP, Innovation Science, and Technology, Intas Pharmaceuticals – Biopharma Division, Lakshmikanth Gandikota is a Gold Medallist from the University of Hyderabad. He did his Ph.D. from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and went to Stanford University School of Medicine for Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation Fellow in Cellular and Molecular Biology and was a Postdoc Research Fellow for 5 years. He was the Principal Scientist at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories for 4 years. He served at Sanofi as a Head and general manager of analytical research and development for 4 years He is the director at Reddy’s, Vice President at Biological E-limited. Currently, he is VP at Intas Pharma Limited – Biopharma division.
Ms. Archa Khandelwal
Senior Analyst, O2h, Archa works as Senior Analyst at O2h where she supports the operations and marketing strategy for the group companies – Discovery and Ventures. At O2h Technology, she leads a small team of world-class developers and is involved in assessing, validating project,s and confirming if a solution has fulfilled the requirement. She also takes care of Ph.D.team management, workflow management and relationship management (internal & external). Archa began her career at Streebo INC where she was involved in the pre-sales function, focussing on business conversions and enhanced revenues. She has completed her computer engineering degree from ADIT, Vallabh Vidyanagar, India. She was also part of the IGNITE week 2019 at the Judges Business School, Cambridge UK.
Dr. Maulik Mistry
Founder, Orange Nutraceuticals, Dr. Maulik Mistry completed his BPharm from Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University. He did his Masters from Abertay University, U.K., and Ph.D. from Ganpat University. He later worked as an Assistant Professor at Ganpat University and from then is Managing Director at Orange nutraceuticals.
Dr. Amit Gupta
Founder, Airmed Pathology Lab, Amit Gupta did his Doctor of Medicine in Radiology from B. J. Medical College later he became the director of AccuView Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd. Later he pursued his MBA from the Indian School of Business and is currently a founder of Airmed pathology labs.
Mr. Sanjaykumar Patel
Founder, ExcelonIP, He was head of IP rights at Gowrie Research Pvt Ltd, an R&D division of B&S Group, UK. He handles all IP rights activities including patents, trademarks and designs as well as IP commercialization and business development opportunities for B&S Group in the pharmaceutical sector. Previously, Mr. Patel worked at Alembic Pharmaceuticals, Intas Pharmaceuticals, and Torrent Pharmaceuticals. He has a postgraduate degree in pharmaceutics from the LM College of Pharmacy and an LLB from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Recently he is the founder of ExcelonIP, Ahmedabad.
Dr. Arpit Patwari
Partner, Pharma ACE Research Laboratory, Arpit Patwari completed his Master’s and Ph.D. from LMCP. Later, he started working as an independent researcher at Pharma ACE Research Laboratory.
The Summit ended with visit to AIC-LMCP Foundation followed by networking over lunch.
