The BIO-Europe Spring Conference 2010 will turn Barcelona into the European Biotechnology Capital in March
Due to the support of institutions and companies, Barcelona has managed to organize one of the most important European biotechnologic congresses.
Barcelona aims to gather more than 2.000 professionals and 1.400 biotech companies from 50 different countries.
The organisers and promoters of BIO-Europe Spring 2010, Biocat and EBD, expect good outcomes with the participation, alliances and investments.
From the 8th till the 10th of March, the world's largest life science partnering conference, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will take place at the CCIB’s Convention Centre in Barcelona. The event has been organised by the EBD Group and Biocat that coordinates the Local Host Committee, which is made up of the Government of Catalonia, ACC1Ó, Barcelona City Council, Chamber of Commerce of Barcelona, Genoma Spain, the Spanish Association of Bioenterprises (Asebio), Invest in Spain and the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI).
The BIO-Europe Spring Conference in Barcelona will count on sponsorships from different companies such as Almirall, Amgen, Esteve, GP Pharm, Oryzon, Palau Pharma and Ysios Capital Partners, among others. Biotech, financial and pharmaceutical companies and entities from all over the world will participate in the congress. The aim of the conference is to find potential members and investors to make agreements, to boost markets and, in general, to promote the Biotechnology sector. More than 7.000 one-to-one meetings that will help facilitate the achievement of these goals are expected to take place during the conference.
The fact that EBD has chosen Barcelona shows that the city has a high reputation within this sector through out the world and that the BioRegion of Catalonia is being consolidated as one of the main economic driver for the country. Over the past few years, Catalonia has built up a brand new biotechnological sector that continues to grow and has benefited from an annual increase of 30% with more than 21.000 researchers, 145 research centres and 12 scientific parks. Thanks to the present position of Biocat and the different administrations, Catalonia has now a powerful bio cluster and is continuing to grow despite the financial crisis.
The fact that the BioRegion is so important in Catalonia has opened doors from all over Europe, in terms of biotechnologic progresses that take place all around the world. This has been the main reason for which the Bio-Europe Spring conference will happen in Barcelona and will convert the city into the Worldwide Biotechnological capital for 3 days.
According to the President of the Biocat Executive Committee, Manel Balcells, “Catalonia is an active collaborator with other bioregions which in return helps itself develop and maintain good relationships with different international partners, an initiative that everyone will be able to perceive at the BIO-Europe Spring conference next March”. On the other hand, the conference will help build up relations between the biotechnological and pharmaceutical businesses easier, with the aim of establishing synergies that will help create common products and strategies for everyone participating in the event.
The BIO-Europe meeting is annually organized by both the EBD Group and the Biotechnology Industry Organisation twice a year, spring and fall. EBD has developed software that makes the search for potential clients much easier and it also coordinates meeting agendas.
About 20 companies from the BioRegion of Catalonia participated in the last conference, which took place in Vienna at the beginning of November 2009. Around 11.000 meetings happenned in this last edition, which was estimated as an 18% increase regarding the previous year. It is foreseen that during the next conference in March, more than 2.000 professionals and 1.400 companies from 50 different countries will take part of it.
Biocat is the organisation that coordinates, dynamizes and promotes biotechnology and biomedicine in Catalonia. It is promoted by the Government of Catalonia and the Barcelona City Council, plus many other companies and entities related to this sector.
For more information contact:
Sílvia Castells (Inforpress) • Tel. +93 419 06 30 • scastells@inforpress.es
Silvia Labé (Biocat) • Tel. +34 93 310 33 69 • M. +34 662 315 400 • slabe@biocat.cat
