Bangalore, March 6, 2009: 

The first BioSpectrum Asia Pacific Life Sciences Industry Awards was presented late Thursday evening to Individuals as well as companies which played a key role in promoting life sciences industry in Singapore and Asia were honoured by CyberMedia’s Biotech publication BioSpectrum Asia. 

Singapore’s Senior Minister for Industry and Trade, Mr. S. Iswaran, presented the awards at a glittering event at Singapore attended by nearly 200 life science industry leaders from Singapore and other Asia-Pacific countries. 

The Product of the Year award was BioMAb EFGR, a cancer treatment drug, developed by India-based biotech company, Biocon Ltd. Mr. Philip Yeo, the special adviser for economic development to Singapore’s Prime Minister, who played a key role in Singapore’s rise as a hub for life sciences industry by setting up BioPolis and Fusionopolis received BioSpectrum’s 1st Asia Pacific Life Time Achievement Award. 

Mr. Philip and the other awardees were selected by an international jury convened by BioSpectrum Asia, a monthly published from Singapore by CyberMedia Singapore Pte Ltd, since 2006. The Entrepreneur of the Year award was given to Mr. Jung Jin Seo, CEO, Celltrion, South Korea. 

“The first BioSpectrum Asia Awards programme is a part of the magazine’s effort to highlight the achievements of the life sciences industry in Singapore and the region even as it seeks to become a hub for the development of cutting edge technology,” said Mr. Pradeep Gupta, publisher of BioSpectrum and chairman of CyberMedia, South Asia’s largest specialty publication. 

“The award-winning magazine, available in print, digital and online formats will continue to play to catalytic role in helping the regional industry capture global attention and become a leader in this vital segment,” Mr Gupta added. 

Three Singapore-based companies, S*Bio, GleneaglesCRC and Veredus Laboratories, were presented with BioSpectrum Editor’s Choice Award for assuming a leadership role in Singapore’s BioScience, CRO and Medical Technology segments. 

Presenting the awards, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Industry & Trade, Mr. S. Iswaran said, “The biomedical sciences industry is an important part of Singapore’s economy. In 2008, this sector contributed 22.2 per cent of our manufacturing value-add, and was the second largest contributor within the manufacturing sector.” 

Minister Iswaran added, “Today, Singapore is host to more than 130 international biomedical sciences companies that have established operations here to reach out to Asia and the world. More than 50 companies are carrying out drug discovery, translational and clinical research as well as medical technology innovation, many in partnership with Singapore’s research institutes.”

The jury included eminent Biotech leaders from four Asian countries: Dr Edison Liu, Executive Director, GIS, Singapore, Dr Anna Lavelle, CEO, AusBio, Melbourne, Dr Jeong-Sun Seo, President, KOBIOVEN, Seoul, Dr Shrikumar Suryanarayan, Director-General, Association of BioTech Led Enterprises, Bangalore and Mr. Abraham Mathew, Chief Editor, BioSpectrum.

BioSpectum Asia Pacific Product of the Year Award 2008 

BIOMAb EFGR By Biocon Limited, India 
BIOMAb EGFR, a product from the Indian biotech major Biocon Limited, is a antibody-based drug for treating solid tumors of epithelial origin, such as head and neck cancers. 

The drug is the first of its kind to be clinically developed in India and is the first anti-EGFR humanized monoclonal antibody for cancer to be made available commercially, anywhere in the world. 

The product has shown consistent response in clinical trials initiated both in India and other regions, and is being extended to other indications. BIOMAb-EGFR, was granted regulatory marketing and manufacturing approval in 2006 and is produced at Biocon’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Bangalore, India.

“This product spearheads Biocon’s foray into proprietary immunotherapeutics and today we join the exclusive league of monoclonal antibody developers worldwide. BIOMAb—EGFR is competitively priced, making cancer treatment more affordable,” said Dr Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD, Biocon.

BioSpectum Asia Pacific Life Time Achievement Award 2008 

Mr. Philip Yeo, Special Advisor, to Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore 
Mr. Philip Yeo, 62, Special Advisor for Economic Development (Prime Minister’s Office), Singapore, is credited with transforming the city-state’s economic landscape. He created an environment which led to better job opportunities in Singapore’s biomedical sciences sector. 

His zeal to serve the society and take the country to new heights motivated him to learn more about biology, sciences and biomedical sciences, even though he is an engineer by profession.

Mr. Yeo dedicated the BioSpectrum Lifetime Achievement Award to the people he has worked with. Speaking about the Award, he said, “I look at this Award as an achievement for the people whom I have worked with. I along with EDB (Economic Development Board) team built this biomedical industry from the scratch.” 

Mr. Yeo is also the Chairman of SPRING, Singapore (a government development agency with the mission of nurturing local enterprises, especially Small and Medium Enterprises). 

BioSpectum Asia Pacific Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008 

Mr Jung-Jin Seo, CEO, Celltrion, South Korea 
Due to Mr. Jung-Jin Seo’s visionary approach Celltrion forged an agreement with British pharma giant Bristol–Myers Squibb’s to manufacture its lead product for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. 

Celltrion’s large-scale mammalian cell culture facility received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2007 to manufacture biologics for BMS. This was the first time a Contract Manufacturing Organization (CMO) in Asia received FDA approval. Celltrion, a joint venture between VaxGen, a California–based biotech company and a group of Korean investors, is one of the largest Asia-based biopharmaceutical manufacturers. 

BioSpectrum Asia Recognizes 3 Singapore Companies for Domestic Leadership
GleneaglesCRC, Singapore’s CRO Company 2008
Gleneagles CRC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Parkway Holdings, is a regional contract research organization (CRO) that conducts clinical research in eight centers in Asia with a network of 270 hospitals and more than 1,000 investigators in the Asia Pacific region. 

With the purchase of Phase Forward’s Clintrial software for use in the Philippines, Singapore and China, GleneaglesCRC has positioned itself as one of the most technologically advanced CROs in Asia. It offers an entire range of services includingfull front-end services through a partnership with Malaysia’s InfoKinetics for phase I studies. 

S*BIO, Singapore’s Emerging BioScience Company 2008 
Singapore’s S*BIO, a privately-held biotech company, focuses on the research and clinical development of novel targeted small molecule drugs for the treatment of cancer. 

Established in 2000 as a joint venture between the Singapore Economic Development Board Investments (EDB) and an integrated drug discovery company, S*BIO has established a state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure complemented by a strong clinical development team.. 

It has a development collaboration, and option and license agreement with Onyx Pharmaceuticals to develop and commercialize its novel JAK2 inhibitors, SB1518 and SB1578. The agreement grants Onyx exclusive rights to develop and market the treatments in the US, Europe and Canada.

Veredus Laboratories, Singapore’s MedTech Company of 2008 
Veredus Laboratories is a research-based diagnostic company that is developing influenza diagnoistic kits which can detect infection within a few hours as opposed to a few days. 

In 2006, Veredus set-up the world’s first ship-based avian influenza testing laboratories with the US Navy 7th Fleet. The kits, are now available in over 40 countries. 

In early 2006, Veredus and STMicroelectronics formed a joint vetnure to develop Lab-on-Chip technology that can detect key influenza strains within two-three hours which would traditionally take days-to-weeks. 

About BioSpectrum Asia
BioSpectrum Asia is an integrated B2B media platform for life sciences industry in the Asia Pacific region. It has an online portal (www.biospectrumasia.com), fortnightly digital magazine and monthly print magazine as formats of delivery. The publication was recently awarded for Excellence in New Business Models Category at the Asian Publishing Award 2008, held in Singapore.

About CyberMedia 
CyberMedia is the largest specialty media house in South Asia and amongst India's top five magazine publishers. With 15 publications, 12 websites, more than 100 events and weekly TV programs, it reaches out to a community of over 1.5 million people. Its brands have consistently been leading in their respective domains. They cover InfoTech (Dataquest, PCQuest, ciol.com), telecom (Voice&Data), consumer electronics (Living Digital), biotech (BioSpectrum and BioSpectrum Asia), entrepreneurship (Dare), legal (Halsbury’s Law Monthly) and emerging technologies (MIT’s Technology Review India). Its media services include market research (IDC India), content outsourcing and distribution. CyberMedia is the first media company from India India to launch international products. 

For media queries, please contact: 
Sanjiv Kataria
Strategic Communications and PR Counsel
+9198100 48095
‘Sanjiv dot kataria at gmail dot com’

Narayanan Suresh
Group Editor--BioSpectrum (India & Asia)
sureshn at cybermedia dot co dot in