Venture Forum 2008 -

VENTURE FORUM 2008
Larta Institute organized its yearly venture forum on May 30, 2008 at Santa Clara Convention Center, Silicon Valley, CA. Biopreneur of the California Takshila University is being one of the affiliates of the program promoter had the privileged to witnessed the excitement of the entrepreneurs at the event.

This year the Venture Forum was dedicated to the life sciences primarily because of a large numbers of early stage innovators in the life sciences through the exclusive partnership of LARTA with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Furthermore this year Venture forum attracted entrepreneurs from several other countries. There were 80 companies exhibited their inventions at the conference – from USA NIH-funded forty eight (48), from affiliates program twenty-four (24), and International – eight (8). It was a highly coordinated and dedicated effort of the Larta team (as show above).

Keynote speaker Steve Burrill of Burrill and Company shared his vision of the life-sciences in the coming decades. Mr. Burrill pointed out the opportunities and challenges for the sector. According to him memory and metabolic-diseases related area will receive the highest attention from the market. He also indicated that more and more people were gravitating toward staying well concept – thus the market opportunities for the wellness industry are undisputable. Just to give a quantitative feeling of his statement – Current drug market is about US$240 billion while size of the wellness product market is US$300 billion and growing.


On the financial market stocks of nutraceuticals product companies consistently did better than the both the indexes for past five years.
One of his encouraging statements for the entrepreneur was “big company is not an innovator, small company is”. Taking string of that statement we discussed with Mr. Burrill and his associate. regarding possible working association with Biopreneur of the California Takshila University. He had one advice for our forum members – “when seeking investment entrepreneur must realize that the use of investment capital comes with the change in strategy.”

Attendees enjoyed an wonderful lunch session with the President of ResearchAmerica , Ms. Mary Woolley. She asked state to take much larger role in advancing research and lack of coordination and attention in the U.S.
We all anticipate and work for science fiction-like breakthroughs.

What we need now more than ever is an advocacy breakthrough, particularly advocacy by innovators and entrepreneurs. She explained the need of public investments in both the fundamental research as well as in technology commercialization. These investment in-turn created jobs and stimulated the nation’s economy.

She further emphasized the need for regenerative research in order to stay ahead of the global competition. Countries like Singapore, South Korea, India and EU nations are implementing more of the current knowledge of the regenerative technologies than that of USA.

Clearly we need more public awareness and governmental support in this area.


We ended the forum with an extraordinary speech on human health crisis in developing countries by Mr. Boris Nikolic, Senior Program Officer, at Global Health Discovery, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Nikolic challenged every entrepreneur in the audience with the current inequality of health that exist in the world. Guiding principles of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is –All lives – no matter where they are – have equal value. It is foundation’s goal to reduce inequality of lives.

Where does the inequity lie?
With the 2/3 of the world’s 6 billion people that live in the developing world. The greatest need is among the 1 in 6 that lives on less than $1 per day.
 Millions die unnecessarily each year from diseases that are currently treatable or preventable
» AIDS, TB and malaria alone kill 6 million people annually
» Vaccine-preventable diseases kill more than 2 million children annually
 Access to existing, effective health interventions is severely limited for most of those in need
» Systems for delivery of vaccines don’t regularly reach all of those in need
» Vaccines available for many years in wealthy countries, but are not used widely in the developing world
The Result: a global health problem that undermines economic development, social and political stability

He concluded his callings with the vision of the Gates foundation –"There is no bigger test for humanity than the crisis of global health. Solving it will require the full commitment of our hearts and minds. We need both. Without compassion, we won’t do anything. Without science, we can’t do anything. So far, we have not applied all we have of either." Bill Gates, World Health Assembly, May 2005


I had the opportunities to meet some of the entrepreneurs who have made exceptional technological advancement in their field. I also met a Professor-preneur, like myself from Brazil, who not only teaches entrepreneurship to his life sciences students but also a founder of a positive cash-flow bio-business in Brazil. Above you see Prof. was explaining to me his peptide technology for metabolic syndrome.
More information on Larta and Venture forum can be found at www.Larta.com. Also stay tune for the up-coming events by Larta and its affiliates including TIP, Biopreneur/ California Takshila University.


Ryan Baidya

California Takshila University