Conference Roundup

Analytica

April this year saw College Hill’s Lorna Cuddon attended the 21st Analytica Trade Fair and Exhibition, which ran from the 1st -4th in Munich, Germany. With over 1,032 exhibiting companies from 34 countries and approximately 32,500 visitors from 111 countries, the organisers confirmed that this year's event saw the largest number of international exhibitors and visitors since the fair was founded 40 years ago. A new addition to the programme of events this year was the Innovations Area, which had more than 50 start-ups, research institutes and universities.

Preparations are already underway for Analytica China, which will be held in Shanghai from September 23rd – 25th. Six months later, from March 18th – 20th, 2009, the brand new Analytica Vietnam will be held in Hanoi, and shortly after that, Analytica Anacon India takes place in Hyderabad from September 29th – October 1st, 2009. The next Analytica to be held in Munich, Germany, will be March 23rd – 26th, 2010. Link.

European BioProcess International

In April College Hill’s Lorna Cuddon attended the European BioProcess International Conference & Exhibition held from the 21st – 24th. Located in Vienna, Switzerland, the 2-day event attracted over 450 attendees. The conference was divided into four streams as follows:

• Scale-up, economics and manufacturing strategies
• Formulation and drug delivery
• Recovery and purification
• Cell culture and upstream processing
• Analytical methods for biologics

College Hill's clients sponsoring the event included GE Healthcare, Novozymes, Protagen and Upfront Chromatography. College Hill was on hand to arrange and facilitate media meetings with press delegates including Genetic Engineering News.

Next year's event will take place in Dusseldorf, Germany, from April 21st – 24th, 2009. Link.

ERBI’s 10th Annual Biopartnering Exchange

College Hill’s Lorna Cuddon, Adam Michael and Katie Odgaard attended ERBI’s 10th Annual Biopartnering Exchange this year held from May 7th-9th at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, near Cambridge. Keynote speakers included Nobel Prize winner Professor Sydney Brenner. The event saw over 600 delegates, and more than 1000 partnering meetings were scheduled over the three days.

College Hill clients attending included GE Healthcare and Illumina, with representatives of both companies presenting during the event. College Hill also partnered with ERBI to provide media relations support at the event, manning the press room and coordinating interviews over the course of the three days. In addition, College Hill also helped ERBI to source a speaker for the exchange’s opening lecture. Clive Cookson, Science Editor at the Financial Times, agreed to talk on disruptive technologies and was helped by College Hill’s Sue Charles in preparing his talk.

ERBI’s 11th Annual Biopartnering Exchange will take place June 10th - 12th, 2009 in Cambridge, UK. Link.

BioVaria 2008

On May 8th this year, College Hill sponsored the first “BioVaria” technology transfer event in Munich, Germany. BioVaria 2008 was the first conference solely dedicated to showcasing technologies from public research institutes in Germany to bioscience and pharmaceutical companies. Attended by College Hill’s Dr Douglas Pretsell and Dr Robert Mayer, over 45 novel commercial opportunities, including research tools, therapeutics, platform technologies and diagnostics were presented at the conference, which brought together more than 150 delegates from Germany’s top universities and international life science companies.

A keynote speech delivered by Prof. Günther Wess, Scientific and Technical Director at the Helmholtz Zentrum München, discussed the new cooperation paradigms between public research and industry and the huge potential of Germany’s academic research as a base to drive commercial success across the globe.

The conference was organised by Ascenion, the life science technology transfer consultancy, and its partners, with support from the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology and a number of leading pharmaceutical and bioscience companies, including Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck Serono and Fresenius Biotech. Other sponsors were Life Sciences Partners, myIP, TVM Capital and Vossius & Partner.

Next year’s event, BioVaria 2009, will take place on May 8th, 2009 in Munich, Germany. Link.

Bio€quity Europe 2008

In May Sue Charles and Adam Michael attended this year's Bio€quity conference in Amsterdam held over two days from the 28th – 29th. On the agenda were initial fears of the credit crisis tipping over into European private equity funds. This appears to be unfounded, according to the selection of venture capitalists. The managing partner of one VC said that he was "aware of nine funds being raised", all of which were progressing well and could be closed before the end of the year. The conclusion from the BioCentury team, the organisers of the conference, is that the current depressed public market valuations are helping VCs raise funds. "There are considerable bargains around at this time, and the underlying problems in the pharma sector are not going away: they still need innovation. With the likes of Actelion's multibillion dollar deal with GSK, biotech remains a compelling story for potential investors."

This year, one of College Hill's Dutch clients, Forbion Capital Partners, sponsored the event, which included its logo and branding on the name badge lanyards. Additionally, AM-Pharma, also based in the Netherlands, announced the first €7m tranche of a €20m series C financing. The CollegeHill team ensured that AM-Pharma was in the local national financial paper, Het Financieele Dagblad, and worked alongside the conference organizers to secure various press attendance at the conference.

Delegates at this year's conference came close to 600, representing 19 countries, with over 225 delegates from various investment houses, 93 company presentations, and 250 scheduled one-on-one meetings. Bio€quity 2009 will be held in Munich, Germany June 9th-10th, eturning to the same city where this increasingly popular conference started 10 years ago. Link.

BioFinance & BioInnovate 2008

On June 9th College Hill's Justine Lamond attended this year's Forum, which took place at the Royal College of Physicians, London, UK. BioFinance & BioInnovate aims to provide an industry discussion platform on current topics facing the industry such as accessing alternative financing options, strategically analysing licensing and M&A deals, commercialising innovation, building new business relationships and developing future partnerships.

This year's Forum focused on the theme of securing critical early stage funding and commercialising innovative technologies, while combining presentation sessions and Forum debates with focused workshops. Panel sessions inspired interesting and involved debates on topical issues such as the changing relationship between Pharma & Biotechs, and a review of innovating funding vehicles for Biotech. While also chairing a panel session, Financial Times’ Andrew Jack drew on topics debated at the Forum for his article "GSK to shake-up research strategies", which was published the day after the Forum. While next year's venue has not been announced, more information can be found at the Biofinance Europe website. Link.

BIO 2008 International Convention

June 17th – 20th saw College Hill’s Katja Stout attend this years meeting in San Diego, USA with over 20,108 delegates attending from 70 different countries and 48 states. The full Convention program consisted of four full days with 175 breakout sessions, 21 educational tracks, more than 1,000 speakers, three keynote sessions, six Super Sessions and three CEO Forum sessions. The all-star keynote line up included Gen. Colin L. Powell, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), and J. Craig Venter, PhD.

The Convention featured the largest gathering of biotech exhibitors in history, with more than 2,100 companies, 126 of which were new, and more than 208,000 sq. feet of exhibition space, the largest ever at the convention. The exhibition included more than 60 domestic, country and regional pavilions representing every aspect of the biotechnology industry. In addition, more than 6,000 delegates participated in the Business Forum where over 14,500 one-on-one partnering meetings were held – a new record.

Next year’s event will take place on May 18th – 21st, 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Link.

MICROSCIENCE 2008

In June College Hill’s Dr Marc Egelhofer and Katie Odgaard attended the Microscience 2008 conference and exhibition, which took place on the 23rd – 26th at ExCeL, London. The largest exhibition in the world dedicated to microscopy and imaging saw around 100 companies showcasing the latest advances in the field. The conference consisted of three parallel sessions with high-profile lectures, speakers from around the world, and workshops with industry leaders.

The next MICROSCIENCE conference and exhibition is scheduled for 2010. Link.

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