15th October, Manipal: Mr Anurag Bagaria, Chairman and CEO of Kemwell Biopharma, Bengaluru, inaugurated Manipal Centre for Biotherapeutics Research (MCBR) at Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal. He said  “I am very happy to see that MAHE has taken the lead in the country to establish a dedicated centre for carrying out Biotherapeutics Research, a science that continues to gain momentum in the universities of the developed countries. I am confident that this centre will emerge as one of the eminent centres in this part of the globe. In the last 40 years, biotherapeutics have become an important part of modern medicine with a great focus on the areas of cell therapy, gene therapy, protein therapy and biomaterials. From Insulin, the first modern medicine produced using biotechnological methods, to today’s COVID vaccine, biotherapeutics research has come a long way. With advances in Biotherapeutics research, especially cell and gene therapy, we are starting to see cures for certain diseases, for example, CAR-T products for leukaemia and gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy. Without academia-industry collaboration, none of these would have been possible”.