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BIO-Europe Spring® Adds New Conference Program Highlights

Carlsbad, California and Madrid, Spain, March 24, 2008 – In the final weeks to the start of BIO-Europe Spring®, April 7-9, 2008 in Palacio Municipal de Congresos, Madrid, Spain, EBD Group today announced new program highlights covering a wide selection of important industry topics.

The new program highlights include:

• Global Partnering – Building (or Stumbling) Blocks of International Licensing. This interactive workshop will be moderated by Joseph S. Dillon, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Valuations, MattsonJack. The panel will include Kevin Taylor, Vice President Business Development, Adolor Corporation; James Hattersley, Vice President, Corporate Business Development, Antares Pharma, Inc., Jochen Eimer, Associate, Mayer Brown LLP; and Dr. Josep Lamarca, Senior Director of Corporate Development, Licensing Projects, Almirall. In this workshop participants will get an insight into researching, assessing and architecting partnering opportunities with global potential. What are the challenges faced by deal-makers in today’s fiercely competitive licensing and M&A environment? What are the partnering, due diligence and deal structuring issues and how can they be addressed? What are the analysis techniques for global market models? These and other critical questions will be answered.
  
  
• Why should BD care about Translational Medicine? Translational medicine is certainly a new favorite buzzword within the research community, but, like all buzzwords, the term can mean different things to different people. This interactive session will cut through the clutter with the help of an expert panel of leading industry scientists, clinicians, and technology thought leaders to focus on key areas such as: What is translational medicine as it applies to the biotech & pharmaceutical industry? How is translational medicine changing practices within the industry? What does translational medicine mean to business developers? Why should we care? This session will be moderated by John Freshley, Chief Business Officer, Compendia Bioscience. The panelists will be Dr. Judith Sebolt-Leopold, CSO and Co-Founder, Oncovera Therapeutics, Inc.; and Dr. Linda Pullan, President, Pullan Consulting.
  
  
• Europe: Turning Ambition into Business. Europe has a strategy for biotechnology as a continent but its best achievements are driven nationally and by the achievements of individual companies, entrepreneurs and investors. Europe has great strengths in many areas of R&D, in technology diversity, and in its enthusiasm for success in biotechnology. In areas such as cancer biology, immunology, enzyme technology, and bio energy, European efforts are world leading. Social health care creates better national bioinformatics, biobanking, and clinical trial networks. Its governments are competing to create better business environments – cutting taxes, incentivising investment, and promoting the commercialization of research. But it is the responses of companies to this environment that determines the level of success. This session will show how European companies have built on technological strengths, channelled scarce resources like management and finance, and ultimately succeeded. The moderator will be John Hodgson, Director, Critical I Ltd. Meanwhile, Dr. Iordanis Arzimanoglou, CEO, Alexander Innovation Zone/Thessaloniki; Dr. Fermín A. Goytisolo, Licensing Manager, Business Development & Licensing, Esteve; and Dr. Keith McCullagh, CEO, Santaris Pharma A/S, will be panelists at this session.
  
  
• Funding Early Stage Deals in Europe. Moderated by Regina Hodits, Life Sciences Partner, Atlas Venture, this workshop will feature panelists Dr. Sijmen de Vries, CEO, 4-Antibody AG; Eduardo Fund, F. Hoffmann - La Roche; and Dr. Joel Jean-Mairet, Managing Partner, YSIOS Capital Partners. Raising capital is the major challenge for small biotech companies in Europe. Faced with funding difficulties in the old continent, EU companies often look to establish a presence in the US, or are acquired by their better funded US counterparts. Despite these difficulties, there are examples of successful early stage funding in Europe. This workshop will showcase several of these examples and explore different ways to raise capital in Europe.
  
  
• Creating Value in the Young Life Science Company. The moderator will be Diane Romza-Kutz, Chair, Life Sciences Practice Group, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP. Panelists will be Mr. Hershel Berry, Managing Partner, Blueprint Life Science Group; Judy Robinett, Partner, North Point Analytics; Timothy L. Enns, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications & Business Development, SuperGen, Inc.; and Patricia Donahue, Vice President, Collaborations Business, XOMA US LLC. There are always difficulties in moving a young and under funded life science company forward. Most of these companies don't recognize the issues, having rarely dealt with them before. Many young companies fail because the founders do not understand the businesses implications on how to "run" the company as a real company; young companies fail to recognize that some initial deals can be made to create value and continue the development of their products, the "quid pro quo" deals; and these companies have little training on how to make the right licensing deal. These topics will be discussed with some case study examples during this session.
  
  
• Alzheimer’s Partnerships – the Valuation Dilemma. This session will be moderated by Dr. Mark A. Cochran, CEO & Executive Director, Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI). The panelists will be Dr. Ian S. Watts, Executive Director, Neurology Evaluations, Strategic Planning & Business Development, AstraZeneca; Dr. Manuel Lopez-Figueroa, Vice President, Bay City Capital; Tim Armour, President and CEO, Cure Alzheimer's Fund; and Kees Been, CEO, EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. How do you value pre-clinical and clinical-stage assets in a disease area where the success heretofore has been almost non-existent? Nevertheless, because of the massive unmet medical need and market potential in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, the demand for even pre-clinical programs has led to record deals in the last two years. Almost every large pharmaceutical firm is desirous of having an Alzheimer’s therapeutic program in its portfolio.

  This session will feature the principals involved in some of the most recent transactions in the Alzheimer’s field and will examine how the rapidly shifting opinion around the various pathophysiological orthodoxies (aBeta vs. Tau) affects deal valuations. The participants will also discuss the important interplay between biological markers, early disease diagnosis, and drug development.
  

• Beyond Targeted Therapeutics – How will Pharma Value the Next Generation of Oncology Companies. In 2007 Venture Capitalists (VC) poured more than US$4 billion into privately held drug discovery and/or development companies in 181 financing deals according to Windhover’s Strategic Transaction Database. The biggest challenge for oncology-focused companies seems to be the ability to differentiate. It is not just about creating another start-up, it is about finding the best way to leverage on a specific technology and approach the oncology market with a clear strategy. The final aim is to become attractive candidates for pharmaceutical companies and create value by advancing programs in later stage clinical trials before out-licensing to a major partner. What is the thought process of early-stage companies in the oncology space? What are the specific challenges that they face? Is there a best fund-raising or partnering strategy to adopt? What are VCs looking for when planning their investments in oncology companies?

  Tim Haines, Partner, Abingworth Management Ltd. will be the moderator of this session. Panelists will be Dr. Martin Buckland, Chief Business Officer, Astex Therapeutics; Dr. Mohamed Ragab, Pharma Partnering Oncology Leader, Hoffmann-La Roche; Dr. George S. Golumbeski, Vice President, Business Development, Licensing and Strategy Oncology, Novartis Pharmaceuticals; and Thomas M. Estok, President & CEO, Tragara Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
  

• Regenerative Medicine: Evaluating the Hype, the Hope and the Reality. The moderator will be Dr. Reni J. Benjamin, Managing Director, Rodman & Renshaw, LLC. Panelists will be Dr. Marc H. Hedrick, President, Cytori Therapeutics; and Dr. Penny Johnson, Director of Research, UK, Intercytex Ltd. Therapeutic advances and increased funding for novel, more effective treatments have positively affected the global health care market. At the same time, life expectancy has increased along with the incidence of diseases associated with aging. Many of these age-related diseases develop from the loss or mis-regulation of specific cell types in the body, including a variety of neurological diseases (Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease), metabolic diseases (diabetes) and cardiovascular diseases (heart failure, myocardial infarction). While many therapies currently exist to address these multi-billion dollar markets, none offer the long-term curative potential to fundamentally alter the disease like regenerative medicine.

  This revolutionary field offers unique opportunities to explore and develop new therapeutic approaches to potentially prevent, treat and cure many debilitating and life-threatening diseases. A growing knowledge base has helped to ascertain the potential of these new technologies, but many challenges remain, including commercialization, and the lack of a clear clinical and regulatory pathway. This panel will explore some of these issues and the impact they are having on deal valuations in this field.
  

• The Pharma Excitement Over RNAi and Antisense Technology. Funding and partnership opportunities for oligonucleotide-based therapeutics and technologies are at an all time high. RNA interference and antisense technology platforms are at the forefront of both licensing and M&A activity; for example, Alnylam’s $331 million up-front alliance with Roche or Isis’ recent deal with Genzyme, and Merck’s $1.1 billion takeout of Sirna Therapeutics. Innovative delivery technologies and other oligonucleotide-based technologies such as aptamers may also come into play.

  But different technology platforms and IP positions mean a wide variety of deal structures are available for oligonucleotide therapeutics companies. Different technologies may be suited to different partnership structures or therapeutic spaces. Smaller firms must balance the need for pharmaceutical deal dollars and validation with dilution concerns and eventual M&A exit opportunities. Pharmaceutical companies eager for large molecule expertise in these exciting technological areas face buy-vs-ally decisions; which deal structures help buyers get the best from these technologies?

  The moderator Chris Morrison, Senior Writer, Windhover Information, will lead a discussion on some of the industry’s most interesting platforms and the licensing deals they’ve generated— whether target-based, therapeutic area-covering, exclusive rights to therapies or non-exclusive rights for technology access. Featured panelists include Peter Williams, Senior Director, Business Development, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Dr. Philip McGurk, Director, Worldwide Business Development, Pfizer, Inc.; Dr. Keith McCullagh, CEO, Santaris Pharma A/S; and Thomas Christély, COO, Silence Therapeutics plc.
  

• Developing a Globalization Strategy – what small biotech can learn from Big Pharma. Moderated by Dr. Dee Athwal, Chief Scientific Officer, moksha8, this session will explore some of the new acute and specialty care market opportunities emerging in other parts of the world. It will evaluate options available to drug development companies to consider regional partnering options for their programs that will provide a better return and better access to rapidly maturing acute care markets in these new territories. The panelists will be R. Stuart Swanson, Partner and Head of Corporate Development, PharmaSwiss; and Venkat Jasti, CEO, Suven Lifesciences.
  
  
• Clusters’ Cooperation: Benefits for Companies. The concept of “Clusters” has emerged as a focal point in competitiveness and economic development over the last decade and has become an important component of regional and national development plans (Porter). Given the fact that many regions in Europe have been focusing on biotechnology as a core industry, the sector has seen bioclusters emerging in most countries. The workshop will look into the specific benefits that clustering activities offer to companies and biotech operators. With a view to European networks such as NetBioClue (networking biotechnology clusters in Europe), AFIBIO (access to finance in biotechnology), and CEBR (the council of European BioRegions), all supported by the European Commission, and with a view to the activities they have carried out, the workshop will tackle the key elements for biotech companies development which clustering can support and facilitate. This session will be moderated by Fabrizio Conicella, General Manager, Bioindustry Park Canavese SpA, and accompanied by panelists Dr. Olivier Kitten, Project Leader, AfiBio; Dr. Klaus Plate, Member of Steering Committee, Council of European Biotech Regions; Dr. Jeff Solomon, Member of Steering Committee, Council of European Biotech Regions; and Dr. Chiara Cattaneo, Project Leader, NetBioClue.

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