Financing Opportunities and Success at the Forefront at BioTrinity

NEWBURY, England, April 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The first day of BioTrinity, Europe's fastest growing early-stage investment and partnering event focused on the lifesciences industry, was attended by a record number of delegates. Key note talks and panel discussions addressed the major issues for lifescience companies and also highlighted recent successes and ongoing investment opportunities.

One of the key panels "Success During Crisis" brought together company CEOs to discuss how they had delivered recent IPOs and M&A. It was chaired by Olivier Litzka, Partner, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners. He said, "Our panel showed that our industry is very much de-coupled from the broader financial cycle. The pharma industry needs to increase its pipelines and companies that address that problem can generate great successes even at times of crisis. We had four very strong businesses on the panel who've delivered real progress and value despite the difficult economic environment."

He added that BioTrinity had become a key event in the European lifesciences calendar: "There has certainly been an impressive increase in activity and quality both in terms of companies and attendees from investors, and particularly VCs. There is good attendance from outside the UK now but for us this is the best event to see early-stage UK lifescience companies."

Turning to the public markets, another panel "Private Equity to Public Markets: Is AIM an Exit" included company executives and investment firms to discuss their experiences. Despite a general view that these are difficult times for classical drug development biotechnology companies, particularly in the UK, it was stressed that did not mean that the public markets are closed for lifesciences businesses.

James Steel, Head of Healthcare & Lifesciences at the broker Peel Hunt, said: "Despite the recent issues in the drug development sector, it is very clear that there are a number of hot areas in the broader lifesciences space for public market investors. There is a scarcity of high quality, more mature businesses in areas like diagnostics, medical devices, specialty pharma and pharma services. Investors are very aware that the current pressures in the wider healthcare and pharma sectors present a number of opportunities and are very keen to see companies that are well placed to offer cost savings and improved patient outcomes."

The conference was opened with a VIP address from Professor Colin Blakemore, Professor of Neuroscience, University of Oxford who discussed the need to deliver on the promise of UK lifesciences research and address the very particular challenges presented by the economic downturn. Other panels on day one included What's New in Corporate Venture? Is Corporate Venture Replacing Traditional Venture? with panelists from new and established corporate venture firms discussing differing trends and models. The panel also saw the announcement of f-star's EUR15m financing deal led by SR One, the corporate venture capital arm of GlaxoSmithKline, and also including Atlas Venture, Aescap Venture, Novo Ventures, TVM Capital, Merck Serono Ventures and MP Healthcare Venture Management. Positioning your Company for Merger & Acquisition - Global Perspectives session included panelists from Europe and China.

BioTrinity showcases some of the best UK emerging and clinical-stage companies, offering delegates unrivalled access to face-to-face meetings with senior partnering executives, helping them work towards achieving their business and partnering goals and objectives.

About OBN

OBN is a not-for-profit business network which provides comprehensive support for its member biotech and medtech companies in the Oxford and South-East England biocluster and the rest of the UK. Our activities can be summarised as networking, partnering, group purchasing, advice and information dissemination. Through its delivery of Europe's fastest growing biopartnering and investment conference, BioTrinity, OBN generates more R&D-company-to-investor interactions than anyone else in Europe. OBN is sponsored by Shire, as Corporate Patron, and Corporate Sponsors MEPC, Manches LLP, James Cowper, Red Moon Executive Search, PiR Interims, SRG, FOCUS Insurance, World Courier and Citigate Dewe Rogerson as well as by its extensive membership of R&D companies and other companies across the entire life sciences industry ecosystem. OBN counts nearly 200 companies amongst its membership, which is growing about 45% per year.

    
    Contacts

    OBN
    Jon Rees
    Tel: +44(0)7795-233883
    jon.rees@obn.org.uk

    Citigate Dewe Rogerson

    Chris Gardner
    T: +44(0)20-7638-9571
    chris.gardner@citigatedr.co.uk