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Carlsbad, CA. and Atlanta, GA., August 19, 2008: In
the final weeks to the start of BioPharm America™, September 9-10,
2008 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Atlanta, GA, EBD Group today announced
new program highlights covering a wide selection of important industry
topics.
The additional program highlights include:
- Rediscovering Anti-Infectives
Big pharma has been reluctant to enter the anti-infectives arena
due to pricing pressure, lower profit margins, short therapeutic
regimens, manufacturing challenges, and regulatory problems associated
with developing drugs for novel microbial targets.
However, the emergence of pandemics, threats of bioterrorism, the
role of combination therapies and advances in molecular biology and
nanotechnology have ignited big pharma’s interest in the anti-infectives
space to build up pipelines through licensing agreements and acquisitions.
Dr. William D. Johnston, President, BioBusiness Strategies, Inc.
will moderate a panel featuring four leading authorities in anti-infectives,
Dr. Edwin W. Ades, Associate Director for Laboratory Science; Division
of Bacterial Diseases, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory
Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Mike Bonney,
President and CEO, Cubist; Dr. Michael Goldblatt, President and CEO,
Functional Genetics; and Dr. Anthony Sedgwick, CEO, Novacta Therapeutics.
This panel will look at the market opportunities in infectious diseases
from a research and a business development related perspective, tackling
important questions such as: What are the most promising research
areas, targets and drugs for infectious diseases? What commercial
opportunities are present in vaccines and antibodies? Which
business and regulatory models will attract partners and investors?
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New Financing Trends in Drug Development and the Role of
Big Pharma and Private Equity
Growing a biopharmaceutical start-up in today’s tough financing environment
requires the entrepreneur to seek sources of financing beyond the
traditional venture capitalist. In addition, the larger biotechnology
and pharmaceutical companies are seeking to maximize their view of
the biotechnology platforms that might deliver tomorrow’s blockbusters.
The major biopharmaceutical companies have established venture capital
arms with a dual purpose of 1) significant return on investment and
2) providing insight into emerging technologies and companies that
might provide future opportunities for acquisition or partnership. The
entrepreneur, in turn, finds value from the depth of knowledge and
market validation of a large pharma investor.
Dr. Thomas H. Callaway, General Partner, Georgia Venture Partners
will lead a panel of corporate venture capitalists including John
Richard, Senior Venture Partner, Nomura Phase 4 Ventures, and Dr.
Rajeev Dadoo, Principal, SR One to discuss the emergence of the investment
arm of big pharma and how the entrepreneur should approach this potential
source of financing.
- The Science and Business of Alzheimer’s Disease Therapy
In the last 15 years the major advances in Alzheimer’s have resulted
from identifying appropriate biomarker endpoints that can track
the progression of the disease. However, current cognitive scoring
instruments do not accurately track the initiation and progress
of the disease until it is too late. There are a number of surrogate
biochemical biomarker endpoints that are being developed in addition
to innovations in medical imaging that may inform progression and
efficacy of new treatment modalities.
Moderated by Dr. Alan Rudolph, Chief Executive Officer, Adlyfe,
this session will bring together a panel of scientific and industry
leaders from small biotech and large pharma companies with active
discovery and development programs to discuss novel advances in
the search for effective Alzheimer’s disease therapeutics. This
panel features Dr. Martin Tolar, Chief Business Officer, CoMentis,
and Dr. Shafique Virani, Director Global Business Development,
Roche, who will discuss ongoing research and provide an overview
of recent deals and business development trends in this area.
EBD Group’s events are widely recognized as being the
gold standard for highly
productive bio-pharma partnering meetings. Like all EBD Group events, partnering
at BioPharm America 2008 is powered
by partneringONE™, the industry’s most advanced partnering system. partneringONE
enables participants to efficiently mine a large pool of potential partners,
and identify and pre-arrange private one-to-one meetings with dozens of company
targets.
General registration for BioPharm America is now available at http://www.ebdgroup.com/bpa/registration.htm.
Early-bird registration with a discount of USD 200 is available
until June 30. For more information about this global partnering
event for the bio-pharma industry, including accommodation and
program updates, please go to the event homepage at www.biopharmamerica.com.
Advance media registration for BioPharm America is now available
online. Registration is complimentary for credentialed members
of the media. To register, please visit http://www.ebdgroup.com/bpa/press_reg.htm.
About BioPharm America
BioPharm America is where biotech industry partnerships get started.
Meet face-to-face with biotech and pharma executives from around
the world to identify and enter strategic relationships. BioPharm
America is the only partnering event in North America based on
the same winning formula as EBD Group’s acclaimed European events
BIO-Europe and BIO-Europe Spring®. BioPharm America is simply
an unmatched opportunity for companies across the biotech value-chain
to meet and do business. For more information please visit www.biopharmamerica.com.
About EBD Group
EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global biotechnology
industry. Since 1993, firms in the life sciences have leveraged
EBD Group’s partnering conferences, technology and services to
identify business opportunities and develop strategic relationships
that drive their business.
EBD Group’s conferences are run in collaboration with leading
industry players and international trade associations. They include
BIO-Europe, the world’s largest stand-alone life science partnering
conference (organized with the support of the Biotechnology Industry
Organization, BIO); BIO-Europe Spring®; BioPharm America™ (EBD’s
new North American partnering event); and BioEquity Europe (co-organized
with BioCentury Publications and BIO).
EBD’s novel, Web-based, partnering service partneringONE™ is also
used at numerous third-party events around the world. Outside of
the conference format, EBD Group’s consultants can provide hands-on
assistance for firms seeking to in- or out-license products and
technologies. EBD Group has offices in the USA and Europe.
For more information please visit www.ebdgroup.com.
Contact:
Constantine Theodoropulos
EBD Group
Phone: +1 (617) 292 7319
ctheodoropulos@ebdgroup.com
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