BioAsia 2020 announces Genome Valley Excellence Award to Dr Carl H June and Dr Vas Narasimhan

The awards will be given to them for their remarkable contributions to the life sciences sector which would further revolutionise the whole public health across the globe

BioAsia, organised by the Government of Telangana, has announced that the Genome Valley Excellence Award will be bestowed upon Dr Carl H June, CAR-T Cell Therapy Pioneer, Richard W Vague Professor in Immunotherapy, Dept of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, USA and Dr Vas (Vasant) Narasimhan, CEO, Novartis.

Dr June will bag the award for his pioneering work in the field of immunotherapy; breakthrough research in developing CAR-T therapy for the treatment of cancer and development and commercialisation of world’s first FDA-approved gene therapy. Dr Vas will receive the award for his extensive work on a range of public health issues particularly in developing countries and exemplary work in the development of over 20 novel medicines, including advances cell and gene therapies as well as vaccines. The award will be presented to them during the 17th edition of BioAsia which will be held between February 17 to 19, 2020 at HICC, Hyderabad.

Speaking on 2020 Genome Valley Excellence Award, Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Dept of Industries & Commerce, Govt of Telangana, said, “We are pleased to announce the Genome Valley Excellence Award 2020 to Dr Carl H June and Dr Vas Narasimhan for their remarkable contributions to the life sciences sector which would further revolutionise the whole public health across the globe. BioAsia, attracts a lot of the best minds of the life sciences industry across the world and is an excellent platform for industry, academia, scientific community and startups to interact, network and build relationships towards the core objectives of their respective fields. The Government of Telangana has always been supportive of innovations in life sciences and is committed to helping the industry to grow by providing it with the world-class infrastructure while ensuring time-bound approvals to improve the ease of doing business in the state.”

Elaborating the significance of Genome Valley Excellence Award, Shakthi Nagappan, CEO, BioAsia & Director (Life Sciences and Pharma), Government of Telangana, said, “Presenting the Genome Valley Excellence Award is one of the highlights of the BioAsia summit organised every year. We have been conferring the prominent scientists, industry leaders and organisations who are inspiring the leaders to join the mission of improving human life and made significant contributions to the life sciences sector across the globe.”