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EBD Group: BIO-Europe® 2013 breaks all previous records for attendance and partnering

The 19th annual BIO-Europe® international partnering conference (November 4–6) wrapped up last week in Vienna, Austria. The conference, organized by EBD Group in collaboration with the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and local host Life Science Austria Vienna (LISAvienna), featured nearly 18,000 one-to-one partnering meetings, an all-time record.

Over 3,200 delegates from 1,841 companies representing 56 countries attended. There were 184 company presentations with close to 3,600 licensing opportunities on offer and 95 exhibits at the event, Europe's largest partnering conference serving the global biotechnology industry.

"BIO-Europe was a momentous success this year. Partnering activity was unsurpassed, with the greatest number of one-to-one meetings for a life science partnering event of this caliber ever reported," said     Florian Schoenhammer, Group Managing Director, EBD Group. "Attendance at the event was up by 10%, and partnering meetings up by 20%, confirming BIO-Europe participation as a critical business development and dealmaking strategy within the industry."

Johannes Sarx, Managing Director of LISAvienna added, "More than 120 Austrian biotech companies, research and cluster organizations participated in BIO-Europe in Vienna. As host sponsor, we succeeded in putting Vienna and Austria firmly on the global life sciences map again."

In its second edition, the Academic Innovators™ track featured 11 presentations ranging from academic research institutes to research hospitals who delivered their projects with strong translational potential to leaders in pharma and biotech.

"It was our initiative to make academic organizations and translational research a core topic of the conference program," said Peter Halwachs, also Managing Director at LISAvienna. "The attendees highly appreciated this new element, a real success for us and the bio industries."

Lubor Gaal, the Head of Europe, Strategic Transactions Group at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said, "I find this meeting successful and fruitful regarding finding partners." Gaal also noted that 95% of BMS's partnering meetings focus on strategy, and 5% are opportunistic.

Marc Dunoyer, CFO of AstraZeneca, was a panelist on Tuesday's keynote that featured a discussion on transformational deals that took place in the industry in 2013. "Partnering is in line with our strategy to create collaborations with companies at the early stage through to late-stage development that are aligned with our three core therapy areas: cardiovascular and metabolic disease; respiratory, inflammation and autoimmune; and oncology," said Dunoyer.

Tony Coles, former Chair and CEO of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, gave a dynamic keynote address on the strategy he used to lead Onyx Pharmaceuticals toward success.

In addition, the winners of the first-ever Nanomedicine Award were officially announced during the nanomedicine panel at BIO-Europe. The Award Review Board agreed to distinguish two projects: Endomagnetics technology in the nanodiagnostic category and I-CARE project from Linköping University in the regenerative medicine category.

BIO-Europe 2014 will be held in Frankfurt, Germany next November. For more information, please check the BIO-Europe event web page or log on to partnering360® to keep abreast of discussions on dealmaking and partnering in advance of the conference. Video coverage from BIO-Europe 2013 is available online at partnering360:Insight.


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®, an inspirational 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 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.

About LISAvienna
LISAvienna - Life Science Austria Vienna is the life science cluster organization of the City of Vienna, serving all stakeholders in the areas of biotechnology/pharmaceuticals and medical technology. As a joint initiative of the Republic of Austria and the City of Vienna, LISAvienna helps to ensure that the economic potential of life sciences is put to good use and turned into marketable products, improved processes and new services. The main focus of its activities is on custom-tailored advice and assistance for innovative enterprises. LISAvienna is supported by Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws) and the ZIT - The Technology Agency of the City of Vienna.

About BIO-Europe 2013
The 19th annual BIO-Europe® event will be the largest biotechnology partnering conference held in Europe. Over 3,000 global decision makers from biotechnology, pharma and finance, representing upwards of 1,700 companies from over 50 countries, annually attend BIO-Europe to identify new business opportunities and develop strategic relationships. BIO-Europe features the industry's most advanced web-based partnering system enabling delegates from all parts of the biotechnology value chain to quickly identify, engage and enter into strategic relationships that drive their business successfully forward. BIO-Europe will take place November 4–6, 2013 in Vienna, Austria.

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