BIO-Europe Spring® 2017 to Draw Pharma Executives Seeking Industry Insight and Biotech Partnerships

CARLSBAD, California and BARCELONA, Spain, February 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The eleventh annual BIO-Europe Spring® international partnering conference will be held in Barcelona, Spain March 20-22, 2017 at the CCIB Convention Centre Barcelona. Produced by EBD Group, the event is co-hosted by Biocat, the organization that coordinates and promotes the healthcare and life sciences sector in Catalonia.

The BIO-Europe Spring conference is expected to draw more than 2,400 life sciences industry executives from over 1,400 companies, and facilitate 12,500 one-to-one partnering meetings with 3,500+ posted licensing opportunities.

"I attend mostly because this is where you come if you really want to meet European pharma companies and other participants in the pharma market," said Charles Yeomans, President and CEO at Trigemina, Inc. in the San Francisco Bay Area.  

According to Biocat CEO Albert Barbera, the Bio Region of Catalonia "has more pharmaceutical companies per capita than any country in Europe, except Belgium, and is ranked fourth among European countries in terms of biotechnology companies per inhabitant and third for medical technology companies."

In addition to partnering and networking opportunities, the event will feature more than 120 company presentations and educational sessions that will explore the issues facing the industry, offer insight for best practices, and pinpoint the trends to watch for in the future.

The opening keynote plenary discussion, "Innovation in an Uncertain World," will be held on Monday, March 20, and will feature speakers Geno Germano, President, Intrexon Corporation, and John Oyler, Founder and CEO, BeiGene. Moderator Alex Lash, National Biotechnology Editor, XConomy, will address how to run a biotech company in unsteady financial, political and regulatory times. The session will cover pricing, valuing R&D, and managing staff, resource allocation, and cross-border collaboration in a global marketplace.

The main agenda for the educational workshops kicks off on Monday, March 20 with a discussion on "Clinical Trials In Early Stage Oncology Development." Moderator Edward Garmey, Partner and Oncology Drug Development Consultant at Alacrita Consulting, will delve into the topic along with Carlos Buesa, CEO, Oryzon; Carlos López, Business Development Manager, Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology; Sonal Patel, VP, Oncology Scientific Innovation, Johnson & Johnson Innovation; Gemma Sala, Head, Clinical Trials Office for Phase I Trials, Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology/Barcelona Clinical Trials Platform; and Robert Wasserman, Chief Medical Officer, Northern Biologics.    

On Monday afternoon, attendees are invited to explore "Commercializing Cell and Gene Therapies," and examine how the new business models for clinical development and manufacturing in cell and gene therapies requires strategic partnerships among researchers, manufacturers and payers to fully realize the commercial opportunities.

While Europe is home to many of the biggest pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers, the US has nurtured biotech entrepreneurs and formed dynamic clusters in cities such as in Boston and San Francisco. During a session called "Stirring the entrepreneurial pot in Europe"on Tuesday, March 21, industry journalist Luke Timmerman, founder and editor of Timmerman Report, will be examining what is happening in various European hotspots at the intersection of academia and entrepreneurship, and where this activity will take the industry in five to 10 years.  

"I'm looking forward to exploring Europe's entrepreneurial ecosystem and how it's changing," said Timmerman. "Europe has a lot of terrific science and is home to great biopharmaceutical companies, but you don't tend to hear as much about its biotech startups."  

Additional topics that will be explored during the overall conference sessions include research and development strategies, pipeline management, microbiome partnering, rare diseases, immuno-oncology, pricing, and collaboration management.

Pharma companies attending include: AbbVie, Amgen, Astellas Pharma, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Merck, MSD, Novartis, Roche, Pfizer, Sanofi, Servier, and more.

For more information about BIO-Europe Spring and to register to attend the event, visit the BIO-Europe Spring website.

Additional links and information: 

Follow BIO-Europe Spring 2017 on Twitter:  @EBDGroup (hashtag: #BIOEuropeSpring).

Online Press Kit service for BIO-Europe Spring 2017 is available from Virtual Press Office/PR Newswire to enhance your public relations efforts.

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 Innovation 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
• 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® Group
• Biolatam®, facilitating partnering among global life sciences executives in Latin America's vibrant life science hubs
• Cell & Gene Exchange, a partnering forum focused on the patient community in cell and gene therapy sectors, co-produced with Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM).

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.

Tune into EBD Group's Insight for timely coverage of news that influences the business strategies of the life science industry.

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.

Contact:
Erin Righetti
EBD Group
+1-760-930-0500
erighetti@ebdgroup.com