VC Community is Gearing up for BIO-Europe Spring® 2013

ZURICH & BARCELONA, Spain --(Business Wire)--

The seventh annual BIO-Europe Spring® international partnering conference will be held at the CCIB Convention Centre Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain, March 11-13, 2013. High attendance by pharma and biotech investors and venture capital firms is expected at the event, which will draw more than 2,000 executive-level attendees from over 1,300 companies.

"Over recent years, the role of VCs has really changed," said Carola Schropp, President of EBD Group. "At BIO-Europe Spring, many of the funds that still invest early will be present. There will be several workshops where investors will sit down with pharma to discuss collaborative approaches to financing early stage biotechs. This goes to show that both pharma and venture have taken on new roles in driving innovation."

One highlight of the program is the Monday morning, March 11, workshop entitled "Exploring alternative financing models," moderated by Steve Dickman, CEO of CBT Advisors, and featuring panelists from VC firms including Sinclair Dunlop, Managing Partner of Rock Spring Ventures; Joël Jean-Mairet, General Partner of Ysios Capital; Kevin Johnson, Partner of Index Ventures; as well as Melissa Stevens, Deputy Executive Director of FasterCures.

The workshop will highlight issues related to the shortage of traditional VC investments and the growing prevalence of creative financing models for early stage and pre-IPO start-ups. The workshop is expected to foster an engaging discussion on these new investment approaches and what is driving this trend in the market.

"These days there is a lot of interest in early stage investing," said Joël Jean-Mairet, Managing Partner at Ysios Capital, a Barcelona-based firm. "Investors are eager to tap into new drug development candidates earlier on provided that these are highly disruptive, and there are a lot of creative financing models developing in the field to capitalize on this early innovation while keeping the investments lucrative. I think the panel at BIO-Europe Spring will be extremely informative to both investors and biotech."

"There is a significant amount of untapped discovery out there, and many high potential young companies require capital to achieve critical milestones in the discovery process," said Sinclair Dunlop of Rock Spring Ventures. "Current investment models are failing to deploy sufficient early stage capital to these types of high growth companies."

Sander Slootweg, Managing Partner of Forbion Capital Partners, will moderate a panel called "Going public: A review of 2012's IPOs" with panelists Barbara Duncan, CFO of Intercept Pharmaceuticals; Dan Dubin, Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Leerink Swann; C.A. (Oscar) Izeboud, Managing Director of Kempen & Co Corporate Finance B.V.; and Daniel Paterson, VP and Head, Corporate Development and Diagnostics of Verastem.

"One main topic we are going to explore on the panel is the differences between the EU and the US markets for IPOs and, more broadly, the capital markets and how we can potentially improve the functioning of the capital markets in Europe. This is certainly of interest to potential investors, and is part and parcel of what BIO-Europe Spring is about," said Slootweg.

"The choices we make need to be the right ones for years to come. Addressing real medical needs is what drives our strategy and brings us with a higher probability to the right programs. Then it requires quality analysis to identify the best people and the best science. BIO-Europe Spring is an excellent place to get in touch with potential right partners," said Olivier Litzka with Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners. Since 2005, Rothschild has supported 25 European biotech and medtech companies, and, while now at EUR 170 million raised, is planning the closing of its EUR 200 million BioDiscovery4 fund in late spring. Litzka is on a panel called Therapeutic Insight: Antibiotics."

The Host Committee for BIO-Europe Spring 2013 in Barcelona is coordinated by Biocat and the Barcelona City Council-through Barcelona Activa-and receives support from other sector organizations and companies from the BioRegion of Catalonia, including Almirall, Amgen, Biokit, Reig Jofré and Ysios Capital.

The 2012 edition was held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and welcomed 2,157 delegates representing 1,304 companies vying for an estimated 2,508 licensing opportunities. 11,172 one-to-one meetings took place at that event among companies across the life science value chain, from large biotech and pharma companies to financiers and innovative start-ups.

One-to-one partnering meetings for the 2013 edition in Barcelona can be requested utilizing partneringONE®. To be included in the first round of scheduling, request your meetings by March 1.

As the leading conference networking solution for the life sciences, the system generates over 40,000 one-to-one meetings annually at EBD Group's six life science partnering events held around the world. With partneringONE, pharma and biotech dealmakers can create a partnering profile and begin efficiently identifying and requesting meetings with potential collaborators. For more about partneringONE and how to log on to your account, go to www.ebdgroup.com/bes/partnering/index.php.

Information for BIO-Europe Spring can be found online at http://www.ebdgroup.com/bes.

Follow EBD Group on Twitter (News - Alert): twitter.com/ebdgroup (Hashtag #BES13).

Notes to Editors:

Entry to BIO-Europe Spring 2013 is free to members of the press, including full access to the partnering system, sessions, press conferences, workshops, and pre-arranged partnering meetings. Visit the BIO-Europe Spring conference website at http://www.ebdgroup.com/bes/press_reg.htm for registration details.

About EBD Group

EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global life science industry. Since 1993, biotech, pharma and medical device companies have leveraged EBD Group's partnering conferences, technology and services to identify business opportunities and develop strategic relationships essential to their success.

EBD Group's conferences are run with the support of leading corporations and international trade associations and include:

BIO-Europe® and BIO-Europe Spring®, Europe's largest life science partnering conferences, supported by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)
BioPharm America™, the fastest growing partnering event in North America
Biotech Showcase™, a unique forum in San Francisco for presenting to investors and business development executives, co-produced with Demy-Colton Life Science Advisors
BioEquity Europe, the investor conference co-organized with BioCentury Publications and BIO
ChinaBio® Partnering Forum, the first dedicated biotech/pharma partnering conference in China, co-produced with ChinaBio® LLC
EuroMedtech™, EBD Group's partnering event for the innovative medical technology industry
Partnering for Global Impact®, a new partnering conference providing an innovative forum to partner, identify and generate social and philanthropic investment and funding opportunities

EBD Group's sophisticated web-based partnering service, partneringONE®, is also used as the partnering engine at numerous third-party events around the world, and partnering360® is the open online community of life science dealmakers that enhances partnering experiences all year long.

Outside of the conference format, EBD Group's consultants 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.