BIO-Europe Spring® 2009 in Milan Sets New Record for Partnering Productivity Partnering intensity jumps 21 percent to 7,104 one-to-one meetings

Milan, Italy and Zurich, Switzerland, March 24, 2009: Close to 1,550 leaders from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry gathered last week for the 3rd annual BIO-Europe Spring® partnering conference, which saw an impressive 7,104 one-to-one partnering meetings between industry dealmakers. BIO-Europe Spring, in only its third year has become the second largest dedicated partnering event in the biotechnology industry in Europe. More complete coverage of the event can be found at www.partneringnews.com.

The conference drew over 955 companies from 44 countries around the world. Delegates engaged in partnering meetings featuring 1,500 licensing opportunities. In addition, there were 16 workshops and panel sessions, and 150 focused presentations by biotech companies seeking financing, licensing opportunities or partners for advancing their product development.

Where the first day of BIO-Europe Spring was dedicated to panel discussions and workshops on hot topics like personalized medicine, current market conditions, or regulatory updates, the second and third days of the conference were divided into timeslots of 30 minutes during which participants got down to the main business of organized one-to-one partnering, supported by EBD Group's partneringONE™ software.

While participation at this year’s event was up 15 percent over BIO-Europe Spring 2008 in Madrid, the level of partnering activity between life science executives was up by an astounding 21 percent in Milan. This spike in meetings indicates a superb quality of licensing opportunities, and partnerships providing a vital route to securing corporate funding.

The success of BIO-Europe Spring 2009 sets the stage for the remainder of EBD Group's 2009 program: EuroMedtech™ (Duesseldorf, June 3–4); BioEquity Europe (June 9–10); ChinaBio® Partnering Forum (June 23–24); BioPharm America™ (September 16–18); and, BIO-Europe (November 2–4).

The 4th annual BIO-Europe Spring event will take place in Barcelona, Spain, March 8–10, 2010.

About BIO-Europe Spring 2009

The BIO-Europe Spring® event brings together international decision makers from all sectors of the biotechnology industry, and features the successful combination of one-to-one meetings, company presentations, panel discussions and a lively exhibition.

Positioned as the springtime counterpart to EBD Group’s flagship conference, BIO-Europe, the BIO-Europe Spring event continues the tradition of providing life science companies with high caliber partnering opportunities. The event enables delegates to identify, meet and network with companies across the life science value chain from large biotech and pharma companies to financiers and innovative start-ups.