BIO-Europe Spring 2010 to make Barcelona the European capital of biotechnology partnering

From 8 to 10 March 2010 Barcelona will host one of the most important biotechnology partnering conferences: BIO-Europe Spring 2010. The event is being organized by leading life sciences partnering firm the EBD Group, and Biocat, which is also coordinating the Host Committee (comprising the Catalan Government, ACC1Ó, Barcelona City Hall, Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, Genoma España, ASEBIO, and Invest in Spain).

BIO-Europe Spring 2010 is being sponsored by Catalan companies such as Palau Pharma, Amgen, Oryzon, Esteve, Almirall and Ysios Capital Partners. Attendees will include biotechnology, pharmaceutical, financial, and services sector professionals from around the world. The conference aims to enable participating companies and institutions to find potential investors and partners, sign agreements, stimulate markets, and promote the biotechnology sector in their respective regions of origin. Over the 3 days of the event, more than 2,000 professionals are slated to attend, representing 1,400 companies from 50 countries, and 7,000 one-to-one meetings are expected to take place.

Why Barcelona?

The EBD Group’s choice of Barcelona reaffirms the city’s strategic position in the global biotechnology and biomedicine sector, and will promote the BioRegion of Catalonia as one of the Country’s principal economic motors. Indeed, in the past few years, Catalonia has amassed a burgeoning biotechnology sector that has grown at a rate of 30% annually. This sector encompasses 350 companies, 21,000 researchers, 145 research centers, and twelve science parks. Owing to the efforts of Biocat and public agencies, Catalonia boasts a strong biotech sector that has continued to grow despite the recent economic crisis.

The president of Biocat’s Executive Committee, Dr. Manell Balcells, underscored that “Catalonia is actively collaborating with other BioRegions to develop virtual clusters that facilitate interactions among international partners”, proof of which will be seen during BIO-Europe Spring.

The BIO-Europe conference is held twice per year: once in spring and once in autumn. The EBD Group has devised software to facilitate the search for potential partners and to coordinate the agenda of participants’ meetings, making their events the most effective in Europe. More than 20 companies from the BioRegion of Catalonia attended the last edition of BIO-Europe, held in late November 2009 in Vienna. The event closed with nearly 11,000 one-to-one meetings, an 18% increase compared to the previous year.

Registration

Dates: 8 to 10 March 2010
Location: Centre de Convencions Internacionals (CCIB) • Rambla Prim, 1-17 • Barcelona (Spain)

For further information:
Biocat • Communications and External Affairs Department • Tel. +34 93 310 33 69 • events@biocat.cat