The most important biotechnology partnering congress in Europe, BIO-Europe Spring 2010 held this year in Barcelona, has already surpassed all registration records before starting next Monday 8 March. Currently, there are approximately 1,750 attendees, 62 expositors, 1,030 companies, 43 countries and more than 8,500 one-to-one meetings.
This year’s congress in Barcelona will have a higher volume of participants than the one held last year in Milan. This fact shows the international importance the BioRegion of Catalonia has taken on over the past years in the field of biotechnology and life sciences, as well as the interest it awakens among international stakeholders in the biotech and pharma sector.
High Catalan participation at round tables and workshops
One of the panel-discussions that will be held as part of BIO-Europe Spring 2010 will be titled Biotechnology in Catalonia: the leading hub in Spain, which will explain the reasons why the international sector sees Catalonia as one of the key regions in the biotechnology panorama for the coming years (8th March at 1:30 pm). The moderator for this session will be Biocat CEO, Montserrat Vendrell, and speakers will include Carlos Buesa, CEO of Oryzon and CataloniaBio board member; Rafael Camacho, CEO of Genoma España; Albert Castellanos, head of Talència; and Jordi Martí-Pifigueras, general director of Amgen.
The plenary session, entitled Collaboration over the next decade: Can 25 years of partnering experience lead to increased productivity?, will include participants like Ignacio Faus, general director of Palau Pharma, and Shelagh Wilson, vice-president and head of the European CEEDD of GlaxoSmithKline, among others. Regina Hodits, partner at Atlas Venture, will moderate the debate (8th March at 11:15 am).
The event is organized by EBD Group and Biocat, which coordinates the Local Host Committee made up of the Government of Catalonia (through the departments of the Vice Presidency, Economy and Finance, Health and DIUE), ACC1Ó, the Barcelona City Council, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Genoma España, Asebio, Invest in Spain and Talència. BIO-Europe Spring Barcelona 2010 is being sponsored by Catalan companies such as Almirall, Amgen, Esteve, GP Pharm, Oryzon, Palau Pharma, Ysios Capital Partners and Cuatrecasas.
Manel Balcells, president of the Biocat Executive Committee, explains, “BIO-Europe Spring 2010 in Barcelona is essential to the growth of the BioRegion and the biotechnology sector. Establishing partnerships between emerging biotech companies, large pharmaceutical companies and the rest of the organizations is fundamental to the Catalan biotechnology industry.”
Vice-president of the Government of Catalonia to attend inauguration
Vice-president of the Government of Catalonia, Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira, will participate in the congress welcome session, on 8th March at 10:45 am, together with Carola Schropp, president of EBD Group; John Craighead, general director of BIO and Manel Balcells. Carod-Rovira and other representatives from the Local Host Committee members are expected to take a tour of the pavilion to visit the different stands of Catalan companies, where they will be able to speak with the heads of the some fifty companies from the BioRegion that will attend the congress.
Dates: from 8th to 11th March 2010?
Place: CCIB • Rambla Prim, 1–17 • Barcelona (Spain)