The city may well prove to be the much-needed launchpad for Africa’s inaugural biotechnology conference, set to be held in the South African city of Durban later this year. Roots of first BioAfrica Conference, scheduled between August 27 and 29, can be traced to the Bio2Biz conference that South Africa organised until 2009. It lost favour among the country’s administration following policy changes, Siya Ntuetela, the CEO of the Africa Bio, BioAfrica’s organiser, told The Hindu on the sidelines of BioAsia 2018 here on Friday. “What we are doing now is to showcase our Biotech space to the world. This inaugural conference will reveal to countries within Africa, just how big this industry is in the continent,” he said. Mr. Ntuetela said South Africa is the continent’s headquarters for the biggest names in the industry and has put in place policies that facilitate investments to the sector while allowing South African firms to find markets abroad. South Africa, one of the biggest economies in Africa, is seen as the face of biotech industry in the continent. According to Mpho Mamabolo, the country has put in place several measures to make regulation easy. “South Africa’s Technology Innovation Agency was constituted to support entrepreneurship with funding and to bring market validation to innovations,” she said. In India, Africa Bio hopes to cement partnerships with the Indian government and with States, mainly Telangana, through the Federation of Asian Biotech Associations, headquartered in Hyderabad. The FABA along with Pharmexcil and Genome Valley, is organising the BioAsia conferences, the 15th edition of which is currently underway at HICC. Mr. Ntuetela and the African delegation have camped at the HICC to find partners among Indian biotech organisations, researchers, venture capitalists, manufacturers and to invite them to the inaugural BioAfrica conference. Solutions for foot and mouth disease, tuberculosis and HIV are some areas where collaboration is possible with India, they said.

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