BIO-Europe 2003 Presents Largest Deals in Industry November 17-19, 2003, Congress Center/Maritim Hotel, Frankfurt, Germany
WASHINGTON and CARLSBAD, Calif., Nov 06, 2003 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Two of
the most prominent deals in the biotechnology/pharma industry will be discussed
at BIO-Europe 2003, the premier "Biotech-Pharma" Partnering Meeting in the
industry. "Without a doubt, the Biovitrum/Amgen deal and the Abgenix/AstraZeneca
deal are two of the most important transatlantic deals of the year," says Scott
Morrision, Head of Life Sciences at Ernst & Young. "The commitment made in these
deals is yet another indication of the turnaround we're observing in the
industry."
The plenary session will analyze the reason behind the deals, discuss how the
deal terms were arrived at, and provide some context on how the deals were
chaperoned though ups and downs to finally come together. The deals will also be
compared to similar transactions in the industry.
The Abgenix/AstraZeneca deal is definitely the earlier stage deal. The companies
will discover and develop antibodies against up to 36 cancer targets identified
by both companies. "This is a major commitment to antibody therapeutics by
AstraZeneca, with a partner that offers an integrated platform for drug
discovery, development and manufacture," commented Roger Lloyd, Executive
Director, Global Licensing at AstraZeneca.
The Biovitrum/Amgen deal focuses on later stage development. Biovitrum licensed
to Amgen the development and marketing rights for a Phase II a, Type II diabetes
drug. This deal is up there with the largest of them: it is potentially worth
more than $500 million. The most unusual aspect of the transaction is that
Biovitrum received co-promotion rights to three compounds from Amgen as part of
the deal. "In addition, it involves split territories as well," explains Paul de
Potocki, Senior Vice President at Biovitrum and responsible for the transaction.
"The total deal will support forward integration and strengthen core competences
at Biovitrum."
In its 9th year, BIO-Europe Annual International Partnering Conference has
become the largest and most successful partnering and investor meeting
attracting pharmaceutical, biotechnology and financial companies from all over
the world. The Conference attracts some of the industries top business
development executives in biotech and pharma, as well as high-ranking
financiers.
BIO-Europe is unique in that it features the most sophisticated partnering
software system in the industry. It allows conference participants to organize
and schedule meetings weeks prior to the event. Companies can request up to 40
meetings, provided that the other part accepts.
190 companies will present their proprietary technologies and latest product
developments. In over 2000 pre-arranged partnering meetings more than 600
companies will establish the basis for future biotech cooperations and
partnerships.
A detailed program and a list of participating companies can be found at
www.bio.org/bioeurope or www.ebdgroup.com/bioeurope.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), headquartered in Washington,
D.C., represents more than 1000 biotechnology companies, academic institutions
and state biotechnology centers in 47 U.S. states and 26 nations. BIO members
are involved in research and development of health care, agricultural,
industrial and environmental products.
E.B.D. Group, Inc. with offices in Carlsbad, CA and Munich, Germany, as well as
the UK and Canada is an international business development and clinical
development practice serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and service
industries. With their partners BIO, BioCentury and BioSquare SAS, E.B.D. Group
also organizes a number of conferences targeted to the global life science
communities. |
