The most prestigious award of the year, BioSpectrum Asia Pacific Bioscience Industry Lifetime Achievement Award 2012, was conferred on Dr John Ballard, co-founder and director of BioAngels, Australia. The international jury unanimously chose Dr Ballard (see selection criteria), who in a career spanning four decades, has successfully played many different roles and contributed to building building the industry in Australia from scratch. Unfortunately, Dr Ballard could not travel to Singapore due to health issues, but thanked BioSpectrum and the jury for acknowledging his long stint in life science industry through an email response.

"I have not made any scientific discoveries that have led to important medical treatments nor have I played a key role in the growth of any major life science companies. But I have had an extremely varied career with four distinct phases that have been both exciting and perhaps can be looked on by younger people as a worthwhile path for them to consider," said Dr Ballard in his thanking note to BioSpectrum Asia.

Emerging company of the year winner, TaiMed Biologics also could not make it to the event in Singapore to receive the award. Ms Nandita Singh, editor, BioSpectum, concluded the grand and glamorous evening with a note thanking all the jury members and audience to make the awards a successful show.

Among the other winners of the BioSpectrum Jury Awards are BioSpectrum Asia Pacific Person of the Year 2012 Dr Il-Sup Huh, chairman & CEO, Green Cross Corp, Korea; BioSpectrum Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 Dr Wilber Huang, president & CEO, Abnova Corporation, Taiwan; and BioSpectrum Products of the Year 2012 HypoMon by AIMEDICS, Australia, and ACHNIL by Venus Remedies, India.

The jury this year comprised Dr Y K Hamied, CMD, Cipla, India, and winner of BioSpectrum Asia Pacific Bioscience Industry Life Time Achievement Award winner 2011; Dr Nazlee Kamal, CEO, BiotechCorp, Malaysia; Mr Sarath Naru, managing partner, Venture East, India; Mr Brendan Shaw, CEO, Medicines, Australia; Ms Cheryl McCaffery, deputy director, Industry Development Group, A*Star, Singapore; Mr Seoung-Kyou Lee, executive director, KoreaBio; Dr Jane SC Tsai, deputy general director, Biomedical Technology and Device Research Laboratories, ITRI, Taiwan; and Mr Abraham Mathew, group editor, BioSpectrum.