Hyderabad, Feb 22 : Covid-19 being "a transformative force" for the healthcare industry will be deliberated by experts at BioAsia 2022 beginning on Thursday. Expert-led panels and sessions will deep dive into the transformative future of the healthcare sector as a whole as well as a diverse set of industries such as healthtech, pharmaceuticals, biopharma, and medtech. "Stakeholders will converse about the learnings from yesterday, adopting change today and collaborating for a healthy tomorrow," the organisers said on Tuesday. The 19th edition of BioAsia, Asia's largest annual global Biotechnology and Life Sciences convention, will see participation from prominent leaders from the life sciences and healthcare industry. For second year in a row, the event will be held in virtual mode. To be inaugurated by Telangana's Industries and Information Technology Minister K.T. Rama Rao, BioAsia has a stellar speaker line-up. The first day's highlight will be a fireside chat between Rama Rao and Microsoft co-founder and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates around a range of themes including learnings from the Covid-19 pandemic, emerging healthcare trends, and predictions on future pandemics. The first panel on two years into the pandemic will focus on conversations on streamlining the healthcare delivery system, along with critical conversations on advancing vaccine development from past learnings. The session will witness insights from World Health Organisation Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, EU Chief Scientific Advisor, Epidemics, Dr. Peter Piot, Bharat Biotech CMD Dr. Krishna Ella, Biological E. MD Mahima Datla, and Union Biotechnology Secretary Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale. A panel titled 'Pharma and Tech Collaboration: A recipe for success?' on the convergence of technology and health industries to improve patient outcomes, will be addressed by Microsoft's Global Chief Medical Officer and VP, Healthcare, Dr. David Rhew, Roche Group's Global Head of Digital, Davidek Herron, and Novartis' Head, Clinical Technology and Innovation, Ashwini Mathur. This session will be followed by plenary address by Medtronic CEO & Chairman, Board of Directors, Geoff Martha. Growing at a 10-12 per cent, the Indian pharma industry is expected to reach $65 billion by 2024, and $120-130 billion by 2030, making India one of the high growth pharma destinations. With India being the largest provider of generic drugs in the world, a panel titled 'Drug R&D - Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow' will focus on adopting global best practices to drive the vision to shift from 'volume only' to 'Value + Volume'. The panelists include Union Science and Technology Secretary Dr. S Chandrashekhar, Biocon Group Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Chairman Satish Reddy, Union Joint Secretary, Pharmaceuticals, N. Yuvaraj, Zydus Cadila Managing Director Sharvil Patel, and Bharat Serums and Vaccines Ltd MD & CEO, Sanjiv Navangul. The keynote address by Johnson & Johnson Executive Chairman Alex Gorsky will focus on innovation in India and Asia, building resilient supply chains, and a free-wheeling chat session with Janssen Pharmaceutical's former Chairman and Chairman, International Advisory Board, BioAsia, Dr. Ajit Shetty, and Telangana's Director, Life Sciences and Pharma, and BioAsia CEO Shakthi Nagappan. "The strong speaker line-up and their outlook for the healthcare industry, reflects an optimistic future for both, the global as well as the Indian medtech and pharma industries. As an important life sciences hub in the world, Hyderabad continues to play a catalytic role in bringing stakeholders together and enabling deliberations on topics of global relevance," said Rama Rao. Telangana's Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Jayesh Ranjan, said that BioAsia has grown into a global phenomenon, attracting participation of leaders from the world's biggest technology and healthcare influencers. He said 19th edition of BioAsia has already received over 27,000 registrations from around the world, to deliberate, network, learn and define the trajectory of the global healthcare in consilience with the need of the hour. /IANS