G S Krishnan is the new President of ABLE

G S Krishnan, formerly regional president & MD, Novozymes South Asia, a Danish biotech company, has taken charge as the new President of the Association of Biotechnology-Led Enterprises (ABLE).

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the Executive Chairperson of Biocon, will continue as the association’s honorary non-executive chairperson, an ABLE statement said.

Krishnan will head a nine-member executive council that was elected last January for a three-year term starting on April 1, 2021.

The other office-bearers are Anand Anandkumar of Bugworks Research as Vice President and Treasurer, and Ravi Bhola of K&S Partners as the new General Secretary of ABLE.

The Association has also set up an ABLE Business Council that will be chaired by former ABLE President and founder of biotech startup Jananom, PM Murali.

This Council will comprise all the past presidents of ABLE such as Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, KK Narayanan, Vijay Chandru and Shrikumar Suryanarayan.

“India’s biopharma segment has played a commendable role in the discovery and manufacturing of COVID- 19 vaccine during the pandemic and we need to build on this great momentum and lead the world in playing a critical role, identifying our capabilities,” said Krishnan.

Krishnan added that opportunities in bioindustrial and bio agriculture are also highly promising and require a conducive regulatory framework.

The 4,300-plus biotech startups too will contribute significantly for the growth of the biotech industry and requires all the support to grab near-to-market opportunities, he said.

“It will be my endeavour to focus on these opportunities working together with the ABLE team and all the relevant stakeholders in making India a $150 billion bio-based economy by the year 2025,” the ABLE President said.

The outgoing ABLE president and chairman of Sea6Energy, Shrikumar Suryanarayan noted, “Our biotech industry demonstrated its power to heal the world during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by providing super quick diagnostic solutions and compressing the development time to roll out vaccines against the SARS CoV-2 virus within a year…”

The other elected members of the ABLE Executive Council (2021-24) are: Kavitha Iyer Rodrigues (Zumutor Biologics), Ezhil Subbian (StringBio), Shama Bhat (Bhat Biotech), Shriram Ragavan (Jananom) and Venkat K Bundla (Garphi Biosciences).

Founded in 2003, ABLE represents over 400 companies in the country’s biotech ecosystem, the statement added.