Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH), a Government of Telangana initiative, has shortlisted six startups as part of the cancer conference and innovation challenge organized earlier this week.
The Innovation Challenge drew about 50 entries from all over the country, which were judged by an eminent jury which included oncologists, scientists, Incubation experts and VCs.
The top 6 startups who will each receive a cash prize of INR 2 lakhs, are AINDRA Systems Pvt Ltd., Embryyo Technologies Private Limited, EPR Gene Technologies Pvt Ltd., Inventigen Technologies Private Limited, Onward Assist and NanoCare Health Services Pvt Ltd. Bharat Biotech International Ltd., and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. have each sponsored two awards, and Apollo Hospitals have sponsored one.
Ajit Rangnekar, Director General, RICH said “Researchers and Startups in Healthsciences, especially in the more difficult areas like Cancer, do not get as much exposure to funders, industry and collaborators. RICH aims to accelerate the collaboration between all the players by bringing them on a common platform to share knowledge. We are excited by the immense response we have received from startups across the country to our first initiative. We will continue to support innovative ideas to improve chances of early detection, treatment, and potentially prevention of cancer.”
Each applicant in the challenge was rated across multiple parameters ranging from innovativeness of the idea, level of development, the economic viability etc. Six winners have been chosen from among the fifty.
“Hyderabad has a vibrant ecosystem of researchers, academics and industry working to find solutions to Cancer. The Telangana government created RICH to bring all these parties to collaborate and speed up research to market. I am delighted to see the huge response to the first Conference arranged by RICH. I look forward to many more such interactions,” Jayesh Ranjan IAS, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce Department, Government of Telangana said.
He also added that the biotech and pharma facility, B-Hub, announced by KTR earlier this month is all set to come up in the Genome Valley and will be similar to T-Hub, but for biotech startups.
The Telangana government announced that it would set up B-Hub, a scale-up manufacturing facility for biopharma-based R&D with an investment of Rs 60 crore.
Similar to T-Hub, B-Hub too, will be set up through the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model.