Conferences  Presenting technologies  Networking event

Biofit - The successful 2010 edition

Why creating BioFIT?
The tech transfer environment has entered into a new era where the public-private collaboration has never been so much desired - and facilitated. It was time to conceive a partnering event to deal with the growing needs linked to the development of Open Innovation in the life sciences sector. The idea to create BioFIT was born.
Only international event focused on the pharma and biotech tech transfer, BioFIT<www.biofit-event.com> is undoubtedly the refreshing event of the year in the life sciences landscape. Stating the number of major pharmas already registered to this partnering event, BioFIT 2012 will give birth to some of the tomorrow’s most innovative collaborative projects.

First and foremost a partnering event offering one-to-one meetings
Abbott, Ablynx, AstraZeneca, AUTM, Burrill&Company, Debiopharm, DSM, Galapagos, GE Healthcare, Genfit, GSK, J&J, Laboratoires Servier, Leuven University, LFB, Max Planck Innovation, Merck & Co, Merck Serono, Norgine, Pfizer, PXTherapeutic, Queen Mary Innvovation Limited, Sanofi-Pasteur, UCB, University of Geneva, UNITEC, TEVA, Takeda, Technion T3,...
Major actors from the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors registered to BioFIT, trusting its PartneringONE® software powered by the EBD Group. This software, elected number one in the life science industry thanks to the 40 000 individuals meetings it has facilitated over the last 18 months, will allow them to set up face-to-face meetings with the other participants of their choice, sending requests and managing freely their schedule. Doing so, they will give the participants the chance to find their future research and business partners among the 350 BioFIT delegates of various profiles.
With 15% of participants from the pharmaceutical industry, 34% from the biotechnology sector and 37% of academics, BioFIT is at the crossroads to offer representatives from three essential sectors in the life sciences sector an opportunity to meet. Given the rare participation of the academia to those kinds of partnering events, BioFIT 2010 promises to be a real success, representing a major step in the history of the academia’s path towards its adherence to Open Innovation.

The presentation sessions, to foster collaboration
To stimulate partnerships and tech transfer, the 20 “Presenting sessions” held by researchers, emerging life science companies and service providers will also be organized during the two days of this outstanding event. For 20 minutes, the registered participants will have the opportunity to present their technology portfolios and kick-start collaborations. The three themes of these presenting sessions (Presenting Companies, Presenting Technologies and Presenting platforms of services) will give a chance for the attendees to find the partner they were looking for in a wide scope of topics including drug development, dermatology, gene therapy, cardiovascular, cancer,…

A cutting-edge conference program
Already renowned for the quality and diversity of its speakers, the BioFIT conference program will undoubtedly be one of the not-to-miss conferences of the year to explore hands-on approaches to technology transfer.
The themes of the eight conferences? Open Innovation, protecting and capitalizing on IP, managing the human resources in the new partnership models, finding financial support for collaborative projects… The conference sessions look certain to generate excellent discussions that will fulfill the expectations of its attendees.
The 30 speakers confirmed? All experts sharing their experience and expertise.
The Plenary Assembly will for instance offer the opportunity to the BioFIT participants to attend to a cutting-edge discussion between 4 major actors from various sectors: the academia (M. Ashley Stevens, President of the AUTM), the pharmaceutical industry (M. Ludo Lauwers, Beerse Site Manager of J&J and M. Neil Weir, Senior VP Global Research at UCB) and the financial sphere (F. Steven Burrill, the CEO of Burrill&Company), under the moderation of the Editor at large at Nature Biotechnology : M. John Hodgson.

The 2010 edition: the beginning of a long series…
Co-organized by IDIS, the Paris-based provider of consulting, marketing, and sales services to the life science sector and Eurasanté, the life science economic development agency of the Lille Nord-Pas de Calais Region, the first edition of BioFIT will take place in the Northern France Bio-Cluster. BioFIT 2010 could not have been possible without the commitment of more than 50 sponsors and supporters who believed in this project since the beginning and supported its development.
The 2010 edition is only the beginning of a long series, as this event will be rotating within the next years in other European biotech hotspots. It will be back in Lille every four years. With a rate of internationalization of more than 50% and the diversity of the 23 countries welcomed (the USA, Canada, the Netherlands, the UK, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Israel, India, Japan,…), internationality is a strong feature of BioFIT 2010.
Patrice Talaga (Director Chemistry Outsourcing at UCB) sums up in a few words the BioFIT’s spirit: “My expectations from BioFIT 2010? Great networking, inspiring presentations, great discussions about Open Innovation, successful innovative partnering… and why not: meeting UCB’s next business partner!”

Biofit at a glance:
Date: 26th - 27th October 2010
Place: Lille Grand Palais Convention Center, Lille (France)
Main activities: Partnering event, presenting sessions, conference program
Audience: Academia, biotech, pharma, investors, IP and Licensing experts
Organizers: IDIS and Eurasanté, in cooperation with the EBD Group.
Contact: biofit@eurasante.com

Biofit positioned to become a leading event focused on biotechnology innovation
Zurich, Switzerland; Lille and Paris, France – March 29, 2010:

IDIS, the Paris-based provider of consulting, marketing, and sales services to the life science sector; Eurasanté, the life science economic development agency of the Lille Nord-Pas de Calais Region; and EBD Group, the leading partnering firm for the life science industry with six partnering events worldwide, today announced the launch of “Biofit”.
BioFIT <www.biofit-event.com> is a new, international event aimed at stimulating and facilitating technology transfer and collaborative projects in the life sciences between universities, research institutes and biotech and pharma companies.
The first edition of this event will be held in Lille, October 26–27, 2010 at the Lille Grand Palais convention center.  It will provide a forum for the effective transfer of ideas, technologies and innovation into the business world by providing a unique and efficient partnering platform.
Over 600 key players of innovation in the life science sector will come together to explore successful public-private partnerships.  During the two-day event, academics, industry stakeholders and CEO entrepreneurs, together with practitioners in technology transfer, intellectual property and licensing will share best practices, know-how and practical information.
BioFIT is also an excellent opportunity for emerging life science companies to highlight their technology portfolios and kick-start collaborations.
“Europe’s Universities and Institutes are a tremendous source of innovation. With pharma showing a strong interest in early stage projects, BioFIT has the potential to grow into a major technology exchange,” said Philip Ledger, Corporate Vice President of EBD Group.

One-to-one partnering at BioFIT will be powered by EBD Group’s renowned partneringONE® software, which has facilitated over 40,000 one-to-one meetings at conferences worldwide during the past 18 months and is the most widely used partnering software in the life science industry.
“Biofit will be an international event from the get go, one that addresses a need in the market for a robust exchange of technology and ideas between academia and industry. With pharma’s decisive shift to acquiring early stage technology from external sources, BioFIT is poised to become an important forum for drug discovery and research organizations worldwide,” said Etienne Vervaecke, Directeur Général of Eurasanté. “We are excited to collaborate with EBD Group. Their proven ability to facilitate partnering on a large scale brings immediate credibility to BioFIT”.

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