Inaugural BIO National Venture Conference Brings Together Elite Group of Early Stage Companies and Venture Capital Partners

               WASHINGTON, D.C. (Thursday, April 24, 2008) - The inaugural BIO National Venture Conference ended Wednesday, following a successful run of partnering meetings, company presentations, and featured workshops highlighting seed and early stage private biotech companies.  The event also included high level clinical panels featuring key opinion leaders in hot topic fields such as regenerative medicine, antibiotics and RNAi.  Hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the conference was held April 22-23 in Cambridge, Mass. 

               The first annual conference was co-hosted by the National Venture Capital Association attracted more than 145 venture capital (VC) attendees representing over 95 VC firms. Over half of the attendees were senior-level investment managers.

              “We are extremely pleased with the high quality of investors and companies who participated in this event,” said Alan Eisenberg, executive vice president, Emerging Companies & Business Development at BIO.  “The conference brought together an elite group of venture capital investors with fledgling, high quality biotechnology companies and larger company business development executives for networking and partnering opportunities.  Our clinical panels were successful in touching upon a number of important up-and-coming therapeutic issues our industry will be facing in the very near future.”

                In addition to the over 40 company presentations, investors and executives participated in more than 132 one-on-one meetings.  The conference also included five panels featuring clinical and therapeutic area leaders discussing topics ranging from start-up funding and valuation strategies to stem cells, RNAi, and the future of biotech in antibiotic development.  

                  For more information on the BIO National Venture Conference, including a complete list of attending venture capital firms please visit http://www.bnvc.bio.org. 

Upcoming BIO Events

 ·   World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology & Bioprocessing  
    April 27-30, 2008
    Chicago, Ill.

 ·   2008 BIO International Convention 
    June 17-20, 2008
    San Diego, Calif.

 ·  Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy
    Sept. 10-12, 2008
    Vancouver, B.C., Canada

 

About BIO
BIO represents more than 1,200 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the annual BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world.

 

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