BIO-Europe Spring® 2013 in Barcelona to Feature C-Level Program Speakers

ZURICH & BARCELONA, Spain--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The seventh annual BIO-Europe Spring® international partnering conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain March 11–13, 2013 at the CCIB Convention Centre Barcelona. The event is expected to draw over 2,000 attendees, 75% of whom represent C-level executives/ VPs and directors, from over 1,300 companies.

“Are we taking on the role of a VC? I don’t think so”

“BIO-Europe Spring is our flagship companion event to BIO-Europe in the fall,” said Carola Schropp, President of EBD Group. “The program is designed to complement partnering and appeal to dealmakers and promote discussion of the issues they struggle with day-to-day, from avoiding mistakes in partnering the deal, to trends in alternative financing models, to preventing a failed proof of concept.”

The Host Committee for the 2013 edition is coordinated by Biocat and the Barcelona City Council—through Barcelona Activa—and receives support from other sector organizations and companies from the BioRegion of Catalonia, including Almirall, Amgen, Biokit, Reig Jofré, Ysios Capital and Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira.

The opening plenary titled “Is pharma taking over the role of VC?” will explore pharma’s move toward earlier involvement in startup R&D and the transformation of their role from mere buyer to mentor in the drug development process. The plenary will be moderated by Vaughn Kailian, Managing Director of MPM Capital, with speakers Frances Heller, Senior VP, Business Development of Bristol-Myers Squibb; Bernhard Kirschbaum, Executive VP, Head of Global Research & Early Development and Member of the Merck Serono Pharmaceutical Executive Committee; Denise Pollard-Knight, Managing Partner of Phase4 Ventures; and Ed Mathers, Partner of NEA.

“There is definitely a trend toward pharma increasing their interest in partnering innovative early stage assets, and being involved earlier in the process of building startups through the sharing of their expertise,” said Kailian. “I think big pharma sees the potential in being more involved, earlier on, to try and fill their diminishing pipelines.”

“Are we taking on the role of a VC? I don’t think so,” said Kirschbaum. “But I would say that we are looking at new ways to not only benefit from external innovation but to be more actively involved in fostering innovation as well outside our company from the ground up. For this we are using a broad range of models which goes beyond what a VC would do. With the ultimate goal to establish successful collaborations driving development of promising technologies and products, we would be remiss if we didn’t embrace the early stage potential that is out there.”

This year’s program again features the popular Therapeutic Insight by Defined Health, a forum for industry executives providing an unparalleled understanding of transformational challenges and opportunities across the industry and within selected disease and platform technology areas, and connecting them with the "big picture" of real world drug development, partnering and commercialization issues. The Therapeutic Insight by Defined Health track includes a presentation on balancing scientific and commercial risk in the pursuit of relevance and key industry opinion leader panel discussions focused on oncology, antibiotics, and orphan CNS diseases.

Ginny Llobell, VP of Defined Health commented, “We are always excited to bring our unconventional insight to the biopharm and investment companies that attend BIO-Europe Spring. The level of intellect and thought that the presentations and panelists bring to the discussions stimulates great enthusiasm for the Therapeutic Insight sessions, and hopefully spurs more informed partnering discussions.”

BIO-Europe Spring 2012 was held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and welcomed 2,157 delegates representing 1,304 companies vying for an estimated 2,508 licensing opportunities. 11,172 one-to-one meetings took place at that event between companies across the life science value chain, from large biotech and pharma companies to financiers and innovative startups.

One-to-one partnering meetings for the 2013 edition in Barcelona can be scheduled starting January 28 utilizing partneringONE®, EBD Group’s leading conference networking solution. As the leading conference networking solution for the life sciences, the system generates over 40,000 one-to-one meetings annually at EBD Group's six life science partnering events held around the world. With partneringONE, pharma and biotech dealmakers can create a partnering profile and begin efficiently identifying and requesting meetings with potential collaborators. For more about partneringONE and how to log on to your account, go to www.ebdgroup.com/bes/partnering/index.php

Information for BIO-Europe Spring can be found online at http://www.ebdgroup.com/bes

Notes to Editors:

Entry to BIO-Europe Spring 2013 is free to members of the press, including full access to the partnering system, sessions, press conferences, workshops, and pre-arranged partnering meetings. Visit the BIO-Europe Spring conference website at http://www.ebdgroup.com/bes/press_reg.htm for registration details.

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
Partnering for Global Impact®, a new partnering conference providing an innovative forum to partner, identify and generate social and philanthropic investment and funding opportunities

EBD Group’s sophisticated web-based partnering service, partneringONE®, is also 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 all year long. Outside of the conference format, EBD Group’s consultants provide hands-on assistance for firms seeking to in- or out-license products and technologies.

EBD Group has offices in the USA and Europe.

For more information please visit www.ebdgroup.com.