WASHINGTON and CARLSBAD, Calif., Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- 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 http://www.bio.org/bioeurope or http://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.
E.B.D. Group, Inc.
CONTACT: Carola Schropp, Principal of E.B.D. Group, +1-760-930-0500; orPatricia Germandi of Genius Biotechnologie, +49-6151-872-4047
Web site: http://www.bio.org/bioeurope
