Singapore: Even as the industry is gearing up for BIOtech Japan 2014 that starts on May 14 at Tokyo Big Sight this year, the event is claiming to have the best conference speakers of all time.

The three day event will consist of an elaborate exhibition, various conferences, partnering activities and academic forum to connect the industry. The organisers have said that the event will bring together over 600 exhibitors, about 200 presentations and is expected to have above 15,000 visitors.

This year, many new features have been added to the exhibition that further enrich the conference program. Many sessions will feature the focal points of new business, latest trends and innovations.

Amongst the topics being discussed at the event, one of the most crucial one is "2014 Partner Country" - Republic of India. The India pavilion will be organized by the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE), while two Indian industry leaders will also speak at the conference. "This would offer deeper insights into one of the most emerging markets in Asia. BIOtech Japan 2014 further enhance India's role as Asia's hub of bio business," the release by the organisers said.

Further, another interesting new feature being added this year is the concurrent show on personalised medicine. This will be the first personalised Medicine and diagnostics expo (IVD Japan 2014). Featuring one of the top emerging, government led fields - Personalised Medicine, this event will feature the best of the cutting-edge diagnostic/testing equipments, reagents, contract services and healthcare IT devices.

The keynote session would feature three speakers including the decision-makers of the Japanese and Indian bio/pharma-related policies and the top management of the major Japanese pharmaceutical companies that have displayed a robust growth. Mr Hiroto Izumi, Cabinet Secretariat, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Japan, Dr K VijayRaghavan, Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology and Mr Yoshihiko Hatanaka, President and CEO of Astellas Pharma would deliver the keynote address.

The event will eventually bring together executives of leading companies and academic authorities who would present on various hot topics. Some of the top noteworthy sessions would be on regenerative medicine by Dr Masayuki Yamato of Tokyo Women's Medical University, co-author of the research paper on STAP cells and Dr Masayo Takahashi of RIKEN, who was chosen as NATURE's 'five to watch' scientists in 2014, a session on iPS/ES cells by Dr Hideyuki Okano of Keio University School of Medicine, Japan's highest authority on iPS cells, presentation on antibody drug by Mr Hiroyuki Kawai, Executive Vice President of Kyowa Hakko Kirin.

An interesting session on "Japanese Version of the NIH" will be led by Dr Tomomitsu Hotta, President of National Cancer Center.

The event will bring 150 academic presenters under one roof to talk about their latest research achievements in various fields such as pharmaceutical/diagnostic drug seeds, drug discovery tools, cancer, medical/diagnostic devices, personalised medicine, regenerative medicine amongst others.