To open 18th Annual BioPartnering Europe conference, Dr Anders Ekblom, Executive Vice President, Global Medicines Development at AstraZeneca, spoke about a commitment to innovation and AstraZeneca's approach to collaborations.
Michael S Johnson, Practice leader at Deloitte Recap LLC, gave his insights and a forecast on the changing landscape of deal structures and business models within the biotech industry. To conclude the morning keynote sessions, Dr David Nicholson, Senior Vice President for Worldwide Licensing and Knowledge Management at Merck & Co Inc, provided an update on today’s Merck and shared his perspectives on the current state of the pharmaceutical industry and the ongoing search for innovative compounds and technologies.
BPE 2010, held at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London, UK, from October 10-12, brought together international leaders from the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and financial industries with delegates from over 450 companies representing 30 countries. BPE is specifically designed to enable delegates to engage in face-to-face meetings with senior partnering executives from leading biotech and pharma companies, helping them expand their international business development opportunities.
In his keynote address titled, Building Creative Partnerships from Molecule to Market, Dr Anders Ekblom from AstraZeneca offered case studies of creative partnership across industry sectors. The case studies showed AstraZeneca's leadership in and moving beyond the traditional pharma-biotech collaborations to bring academia, governments, NGOs, patient advocacy groups, venture capitalists, and other thought leaders to the table.
“AstraZeneca recognizes that innovation is fundamental to addressing the most pressing health issues around the world.” Dr Ekblom told the audience. “A core ingredient in our innovation strategy is the emphasis on creative collaborations, to the extent that 40% of our pipeline will come from external collaborations.”
Mr Michael S Johnson from Deloitte Recap LLC offered the second keynote address titled, The FIPCO Dream in the 21st Century: Evolution of BioPharma Deal Structures. The address focused on how the evolution of the US biotech industry has been influenced almost as much by its dealmaking as by its science. He forecasted how things will look as the industry approaches "middle age" and reported on the shifting of deal structure and business models because of the changing aspirations and insights of the industry.
In the final keynote address of the Morning, Dr. David Nicholson from Merck & Co Inc., presented Today's Merck: Broadening our Horizons. In his speech Dr Nicholson said: “Merck's commitment to securing innovative collaborations is an integral part of our research and development strategy.”
As the head of Merck's Worldwide Licensing and External Research team, Dr. Nicholson has spent his career in global pharmaceutical research. He spoke about a new Merck and its heightened focus on novel, cutting-edge partnerships -- both inlicensing and outlicensing. He also shared the latest information on Merck's broader global reach into new markets, hopes for Merck's RNA therapeutics and follow-on biologics, and the intense worldwide search for biotech and academic partners who will join Merck in facing new frontiers.
BPE offers delegates the opportunity to participate in a variety of interactive leadership sessions and to meet face-to-face with potential partners over the three day conference. Other highlights of the conference include a discussion on the evolution of biopharma deal structures and the future of the BioPartnering landscape. In addition, the conference showcases some of the leading biotechnology companies in podium presentations, where delegates are able to introduce their companies, ensuring maximum exposure for their company, and their partnering goals and objectives.
Technology Vision Group
