BIO’s CEO Conference Highlights Economic Potential of Biotech Industry

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 4, 2003) - The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) will host its fifth annual CEO & Investor Conference February 25-27 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. This conference is one of the largest life science investor events on the East Coast. The format provides a unique forum where CEOs from small-, medium- and large-cap companies, as well as private companies planning to go public, can interact with investors and other members of the financial and health-care communities to promote their research. More than 1,500 investors, analysts, company executives and journalists attended last year’s event.

Conference speakers will include Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D; Christine Poon, Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals Group, Johnson & Johnson; and John W. Rowe, M.D., chairman and CEO of Aetna Inc.

The CEO & Investor Conference will highlight the economic potential of the biotech industry and issues that could affect its future growth. The fundamentals of the biotechnology industry remain strong despite the economic slump of 2001-2002:
· 35 new biotech products were approved in 2002;
· approximately 30 new drug and biologics licensing applications are pending;
· an additional 371 products are in late-stage clinical trials;
· 155 total biotech medicines and vaccines have been approved; and
· biotech companies raised $70 billion in the last five years.

The conference will include eight investor sessions hosted by top investment banks and moderated by leading analysts and eight CEO roundtables highlighting issues affecting industry growth and company health. Topics will include: evolving biotech-pharma relationships; regulatory changes at the Securities Exchange Commission; considerations in licensing agreements; drug development challenges and creating successful pipelines; and the impact of recent developments at the FDA.

Additional roundtables and sessions will focus on specific diseases and therapeutic technologies including rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disease, psoriasis, protein therapeutics, antisense technology, and infectious diseases.

Approximately 190 biotechnology companies from 16 states and 10 countries, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, will present their advances in drug discovery and product development to potential investors and partners at the conference. More than 30 presenting companies are pursuing cancer research and development, and more than 20 companies are working on drug discovery technologies. A significant number of presenting companies are working in the following research areas: autoimmune, inflammation, biopharmaceuticals, cardiovascular diseases, drug delivery technologies, genomics, infectious diseases, central nervous system, neurology, and gene and cell therapy. For a complete list of companies presenting at the CEO & Investor Conference, please visit www.bio.org.

For more information on the BIO CEO & Investor Conference, please visit www.bio.org. Press registration is now available and is complimentary for credentialed members of the news media. Press releases, conference updates and registration information are posted in the “Media” section of the conference Web site.

BIO represents more than 1,000 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations in all 50 U.S. states and 33 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development health-care, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology centers.

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