News

Madrid, June 25th 2010.

BioSpain 2010 becomes more international

With the aim of fostering the dissemination of biotechnology in Spain, the Spanish Bioindustry Association (ASEBIO) and the Navarre’s Government through the Navarre Society of Development (SODENA) organise BioSpain 2010, a biennial event gathering a wide group of experts from the national and international biotechnological sector. On this occasion, the event will take place in Pamplona from September 29th to October 1st and will be honoured to have three lecturers of international prestige, such as Mr. Carlos Cordón-Cardo, Vice-Chair of Pathology & Professor, Columbia University; Mr. Larry Fritz, President & CEO, Covella Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Life Science Venture Partner, Westfield Capital Management Company LP, and Mr. Conny Bogentoft, CEO Karolinska Development AB.

Internationalization will be the highlight this year. Over 160 companies have already confirmed their participation in the trade exhibition area from countries such as Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, UK and Spain among others. This figure represents 33% more than in the last BioSpain edition held two years ago in Granada.

BioSpain 2010 will feature an extensive program of breakout sessions addressing the most relevant topics in the current biotech scenario: Bioenergy; Orphan Drugs & Rare Diseases; Alzheimer and other neurodegenerative diseases: “What is the Spanish industry doing to develop new drugs?”; Protein Production & Biosimilars; Bioinformatics solutions for genomics: from sequences to Biotechnology and Biomedicine; Alternative Equity Market for Growth Companies; Venture Capital; Biotech’s Next Big Thing?; Joint Technology Cooperation Projects between Spain and other countries: Eureka & Canadeka; “International Technology Commercialization: The Challenges of US-European Public-Private Partnerships”, (with the participation of the Office of Technology Transfer at John Hopkins University and the Research Triangle of North Carolina) and Infoday FP7. It is expected that BioSpain 2010 will gather more than 1,200 experts in Biotechnology.

An international round table called “Opportunities and Challenges in Global Biomarkets” has also been confirmed. Its main aim is to discuss the present state of the biotechnological industry, its development and future prospects. This discussion will be graced by the presence of Mr. Andrea Rappagliossi, President at EuropaBio; Dra. Anna Lavelle, CEO from AUSBIOTECH, Sean Darragh, Executive Vice President, International Affairs at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and Albert Sasson, President of BioEuroLatina, among other speakers. Mr. Siegfried Bialojan, Head of European Life Sciences Center (Ernst & Young) will be moderating the roundtable session.

As on previous occasions, BioSpain 2010 will also host the scientific conference organised by the Spanish Society of Biotechnology (SEBIOT), Biotec 2010. The conference will include issues related to environmental biotechnology, biocatalysis, diagnostic technologies and nanobiotechnology, among other topics.

One of the most attractive aspects in BioSpain 2010 is the so-called “partnering”, organised by EBD Group, which consists of organising a series of bilateral meetings between companies in different rooms prepared with this aim. In the last partnering event in BioSpain 2008, more than 600 companies and institutions were involved, making of this initiative the ideal scenario to contact potential customers, collaborators, suppliers or investors. This year, over 1.200 delegates from 650 companies & institutions from Spain and abroad are expected at BioSpain 2010.

Furthermore, the investors’ forum seeks to find new financing sources for future entrepreneurial projects. 30 companies will present their business plan to an audience of experts and investors of Merck & Co, Bay City Capital, La Caixa, Ysios Capital Partners, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, Forbion Capital Partners, Suanfarma Biotech, McKinsey & Company y PharmaVentures, entre otros.

This event has as official sponsors Caja de Navarra, The Zeltia Group, Genoma España, AB Biotics, Genetrix, Merck and ICEX.

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