DIA recently organised ‘IT Life Sciences Summit 2012: Technology Enabled Pharmaceutical Business Transformation’. The event was held at ITC—The Maratha, Mumbai. This was the very first DIA India conference on the theme of information technology in life sciences. Participants were from life sciences companies, Contract Research Organisations (CROs), and information technology product and services providers.
| Guest of honour: Milind Khamkar, CIO (India & South Asia), Sanofi-Aventis | Anil Raghavan, Managing Director, Quintiles India |
The conference began with a guest of honour address from Milind Khamkar, CIO (India and South Asia), Sanofi-Aventis. Following that a very insightful keynote speech was delivered by Anil Raghavan, MD, Quintiles India, on the dynamic scenario of technology, process and people in major business segments of life sciences sector. The second keynote speaker was Sairamkumar J, Global Delivery Head, Life Sciences, Cognizant. He shared his valuable thoughts on the latest advances and also challenges in the life sciences IT space.
Through the two days of this conference, the attendees heard about latest developments, case studies and solutions from life science industry experts. Sessions featured expert presentations on the latest trends and technology advances that are reshaping the life sciences industry. Sessions were segmented into pre clinical and discovery, clinical development, manufacturing, commercialisation, regulatory and quality.
| Delegates during the event | |
Panel discussions on thought provoking topics were also scheduled on both the days. Following the keynote addresses, the first panel discussion was titled—‘Is Pharma Exploiting IT Enough to get Competitive Advantage’. This discussion brought out some of the most interesting technology solutions being used or developed by various life sciences organisations. The second panel discussion on ‘Bridging Pharma and IT in the Future’ featured excellent discussions between industry leaders with participation from the floor.
In the new health landscape social media is turning into a critical communications engine for healthcare and life sciences organisations. The final session was a high energy discussion between media experts from the industry and the press. Attendees also had an opportunity to network with life sciences organisations and technology companies to build collaborative relationships with peers, thought leaders; current and future vendor and partners. DIA has added this summit to the annual calendar of global meetings and expects it to be a major global event in a few years.
EP News Bureau