CARLSBAD, Calif. & NEW YORK & TURIN, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The eighth annual BIO-Europe Spring® conference kicks off in one week on March 10–12 in Turin, Italy.
The event is expected to draw over 2,000 high-level executives from pharma, biotech, venture capital firms, and service companies who will be coming to Turin to engage in one-to-one partnering meetings with innovative biotech startups. Delegates are expected to engage in over 11,000 partnering meetings at the event in just three days.
Monday’s Opening Plenary, entitled “Are big biotechs the better dealmakers?,” will be moderated by Barclay James Kamb of Cooley LLP with heavy-hitter panelists David Colpman of Shire; John F. McDonald of Biogen Idec; James Sabry of Genentech; and Jeremy Springhorn of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
“The life science dealmaking landscape is constantly adapting to change, and one key trend is the emergence of big biotech as aggressive acquirers of third party drugs. Companies such as Biogen Idec, Gilead and Celgene have built significant value on the back of their dealmaking,” said David Colpman, Head of Global Business Development at Shire. “But are these type of companies better dealmakers, and what do we mean when we say ‘better?’ I think by defining the benchmarks of success we will find the answer, and I look forward to discussion toward that end at BIO-Europe Spring.”
The Monday afternoon parallel panel discussion on Immunotherapies, entitled “From pariah to darling: Biopharma finally courts immunotherapies,” is expected to be a big draw as immuno-oncology has quickly become the most talked about approach for changing the treatment paradigm of cancer. This panel will be moderated by Jeffrey M. Bockman of Defined Health, with global research heads on the panel including Paul G. Higham of immatics biotechnologies; Axel Hoos of GlaxoSmithKline; Hy Levitsky of Roche; Myra Patchen of Biothera; and Helen Sabzevari of EMD Serono.
Academia has recently risen to a more prominent role in biopharma partnering, and will be the feature of another Monday panel entitled “Final exams: When academic science is called on to prove its value.” The panel will be moderated by social media guru Steve Dickman of CBT Advisors, with panelists Elena Beltrami of Fondazione Telethon; Diane Harbison of University of Edinburgh; Werner Lanthaler of Evotec; and Chris Stahl of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center discussing the role of technology transfer offices in early stage biotech innovation.
“The increasing interaction of technology transfer offices with early-stage biotech investors can be challenging in replicating and providing the sheer volume of necessary benchmarks to show patient outcomes, and commercialization potential of their novel compounds and technologies,” said Diane Harbison, Head of Business Development, Edinburgh BioQuarter at University of Edinburgh. “The panel aims to shed light on how TTOs are dealing with these interactions and what types of models are working best.”
There will also be an Academic Innovators™ Showcase presentation track on Tuesday morning with presentations by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center; Edinburgh BioQuarter; Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia; Jagiellonian University; MicroMarine Biotech - Universidad de Valparaíso; TTFactor srl; and University of Trieste - Department of Life Sciences.
The full program features executives speaking on industry topics relevant to dealmaking and business development, and research trends, including orphan diseases, funding drug discovery, personalized medicine, gene therapies, immunotherapies and autoimmune disease, relevance data, regulatory issues, and more.
BIO-Europe Spring is the springtime counterpart to EBD Group’s flagship life science partnering conference, BIO-Europe®. Companies participate in one-to-one partnering meetings facilitated by EBD Group’s highly reputable partneringONE® platform.
Register now for BIO-Europe Spring 2014, and read the Spotlight on Turin page to plan your trip. Log onto partnering360® to join the BIO-Europe Spring 2014 Discussion Forum for event related news and discussion.
About the Regional Host Committee
BioEurope Spring is sponsored by the Torino Chamber of Commerce and is host within the framework of Piemonte Health & Wellness, a project funded by Regione Piemonte, Unioncamere Piemonte and the local Chambers of Commerce and managed by Piemonte Agency with the support of the bioPmed innovation cluster. The project provides international players the shortest way to meet and start business with a selection of top class companies from Torino-Piemonte active in the life sciences fields.
The Team’s assistance is completely free-of-charge: it ascertains international players’ needs and upon request suggests possible suppliers and arranges matchmaking activities. Member companies, selected on the basis of strict and objective evaluation parameters, are all eager to face the challenge of international markets and advanced technology.
About BIO-Europe Spring® 2014:
As the springtime counterpart to BIO-Europe®, BIO-Europe Spring® continues the tradition of providing life science companies with high caliber partnering opportunities. Featuring EBD Group’s acclaimed partnering system, partneringONE®, the event enables delegates to efficiently identify, meet and get partnerships started with companies across the biotech value chain.
In addition to productive partnering, BIO-Europe Spring offers high level workshops, panels, company presentations, and a lively exhibition. The program features executive level panelists who openly share their insight and opinion on many important industry issues. The company presentation tracks provide a forum for innovative start-ups, established biotech companies, and large and midsize pharma to present information on products, partnering opportunities and corporate strategy.
Combined, these elements create an insightful and productive event that will have you coming back year after year.
BIO-Europe Spring is produced by EBD Group, the leading partnering firm for the global biotechnology industry, with the support of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).
Follow BIO-Europe Spring 2014 on Twitter: twitter.com/ebdgroup (hashtag: #BES14). Or log on to the BIO-Europe Spring 2014 Discussion Forum on partnering360®. The Group is your go-to discussion forum for news and topics related to BIO-Europe Spring.
About EBD Group
EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global life science industry. Since 1993, biotech, pharma and medical device companies have leveraged EBD Group’s partnering conferences, technology and services to identify business opportunities and develop strategic relationships essential to their success.
EBD Group’s conferences are run with the support of leading corporations and international trade associations and include:
- BIO-Europe® and BIO-Europe Spring®, Europe’s largest life science partnering conferences, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)
- BioPharm America™, the fastest growing partnering event in North America
- Biotech Showcase™, a unique forum in San Francisco for presenting to investors and business development executives, co-produced with Demy-Colton Life Science Advisors
- BioEquity Europe, the investor conference co-organized with BioCentury Publications and BIO
- ChinaBio® Partnering Forum, the first dedicated biotech/pharma partnering conference in China, co-produced with ChinaBio® LLC
- EuroMedtech™, EBD Group’s partnering event for the innovative medical technology industry
- The Global Impact Forum, a unique and innovative partnering conference in impact investing and venture philanthropy.
EBD Group’s sophisticated web-based partnering service, partneringONE®, is used as the partnering engine at numerous third-party events around the world, and partnering360® is the open online community of life science dealmakers that enhances partnering experiences throughout the year.
EBD Group is an Informa company. Informa is the largest publicly-owned organizer of exhibitions, conferences and training in the world.
EBD Group has offices in the USA and Europe.
For more information please visit www.ebdgroup.com.
