The BioFIT 2017 conference programme is designed to address the needs of its audience constituted by academia, TTOs, research institutions, pharma, biotech companies, but also law experts and investors in pre-seed, seed and Series A. The BioFIT agenda aims to provide solutions, best practices for every player of the sector.
BioFIT’s 2017 wide-ranging programme has been redesigned around three tracks:
- Track 1: New players involved in innovation in the health sector
- Track 2: Nurturing and licensing early-stage assets
- Track 3: Bioentrepreneurs’ challenges at pre-seed, seed and Series A stages
This year’s aim is to focus on bioentrepreneurship, explore the mutually beneficial relationships between academia and industry, address access to seed capital, and oversee new trends in financing early-stage innovation.
The event reflects the fast-paced and dynamic Life Sciences sector.
PLENARY SESSION
16 Jul 2019
A lot of pharma companies declare that they no longer want to be purely developers of drugs, and thus they progressively transition to become healthcare solution providers, trying to seek broader solutions to answer the patient needs, and changing the way they look at assets: What does it mean for the industry in terms of orientation of their scouting efforts, particularly for early-stage assets? This session aims to understand pharma’s viewpoint, the consequences for the orientation of deals, the way it is going to influence the relationships with academia and biotech start-ups. How does this strategic intention modify the type and the nature of deals that pharma have with start-ups & academic institutions? How is it affecting early-stage licensing deals?
04 Dec 2018 11:30 am-1:00 pm
The early-stage investment actors can be seen as traditionally geographically anchored, but now seed and Series A investors tend to invest in more diverse geographic areas. Where does the money come from? How far is this evolution towards more global funds going? How fast is it going in the investment community? Will it make the investors more willing to take risks, will it change the risk landscape? Isn’t there an ill-balance today between the geographical origin of investment capabilities and the areas that are crawling with projects needing equity investment?
The speakers
-
Zishan Haroon
Chairman and General Partner
Julz Co -
Mirko Scherer
Managing Partner and CEO
TVM Capital China Limited -
Lisa Urquhart
Editor
EP Vantage -
Jemila Houacine
Associate
Medicxi -
Stephan Lensky
Chief Operating and Chief Business Officer
EpimAb Biotherapeutics
TRACK 1:
NEW PLAYERS INVOLVED IN INNOVATION IN THE HEALTH SECTOR
Big data and health IT companies provide key expertise to potentially increase efficiency in the discovery, preclinical and clinical stages of development. What will be their position and involvement in the therapeutic innovation chain: Will they participate or lead? Examples of collaborations between biotech, pharma, IT companies and academic research will be highlighted. However, these new players don’t only originate from the big data sector, they also come from various areas such as animal health or e-health.
16 Jul 2019
- Panorama of European entrepreneurial training programmes - How do I find the right contacts? What are the ways and networks to be found? How to get access to a seat at the right table? How do we find the risk takers? Hear from savvy entrepreneurs and investors to receive a real know-how.
16 Jul 2019
What are the good examples of partnerships in this field? How have they proved to be fertile in innovation for the benefit of both parties?
16 Jul 2019
Which research topics are considered good candidates for competitive consortia at the time of precision medicine? Are the current collaborative models (IMI, H2020…) adapted to the research needs? How to balance each party's interests and define the domain of precompetitive research. How can IP problematics be managed?
16 Jul 2019
How can consolidating and mutualising data between industrial and academic players unlock the full potential of these partnerships? How can we make these data available to pharma and how can we make use of big data to fuel the pharma pipeline? Which collaboration models have emerged around big data? How is the central status of big data already entailing academia-industry collaborations?
The speakers
-
Hans Constandt
CEO
ONTOFORCE
16 Jul 2019
To which needs do these numerous collaboration schemes answer? What are the specificities of these agreements in terms of management models and R&D means mutualisation. Are short-term reports and industry constraints coherent with multi-years academic agreements?
04 Dec 2018 9:30-11:00 am
Companies are now using machine learning in highly specific ways to streamline and improve many day-to-day biomedical research tasks. The use of AI has shifted from generalist tasks to purpose-built tools with numerous applications to speed up drug discovery at all the different research stages. The panel will address some of the uses of AI, ultimately potentially cutting R&D costs by aggregating and synthesising information, repurposing existing drugs, generating and validating novel drug candidates, designing drugs and preclinical experiments, etc.
The speakers
-
Emmet Browne
CEO
Nuritas -
Pascal Sempé
Cognitive/AI Solution Specialist - Life Sciences
IBM -
Melanie Senior
Healthcare Writer & Analyst
Pharma Intelligence | Informa -
Avishai Levy
CEO
MIGAL – Galilee Research Institute -
Michel de Baar
Executive Director BD&L Europe
MSD
05 Dec 2018 9:00-10:30 am
Why should a human-focused biotech company be interested in the animal health industry? Are there common grounds that can lead to more frequent and fruitful collaborations between animal and human health companies in the future? Today, it is obvious that the animal health industry offers a clear value proposition to human biotechnology companies, which can maximise the financial and clinical impact of their assets by leveraging both human and veterinary health. The physio pathological features of several diseases (cancer, osteoarticular affections, infectious diseases, pain…) are progressively understood as at least common between animal and human. This paves the way to innovative products developed under the sign of a so-called comparative medicine. This panel will encourage a provocative, straightforward and realistic discussion on what each side needs from the other to set up mutual beneficial partnerships.
The speakers
-
Sven Arnouts
Business Development Manager
PROVAXS -
Luigi Aurisicchio
CEO
Takis Biotech - EVVIVAX -
Laëtitia Gerbe
Partner for investments in AVF fund
Seventure Partners -
Steve Nanchen
Advisor External Innovation
Elanco R&D -
Oliver Hardcastle
CEO
ANIZOME
04 Dec 2018 2:30-4:00 pm
Beyond sharing physical means, this session focuses on deliberate strategies of life sciences industry and the academic world to pool R&D resources to address common questions and reach common goals through shared R&D strategies and aligned incentives. We will review some partnerships that have chosen to take a leap forward and collaborate on scientific projects that they couldn’t do on their own.
The speakers
-
Ewa G. Truchanowicz
Life Sciences Lead
University of Birmingham Enterprise -
Marco A.Chacón
Assistant Vice President of Industry Alliances
University of Maryland, Baltimore -
Nick Clarke
Head of UK Academic Partnerships, External Sciences and Innovation
Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development -
Thierry Guillaudeux
Director
UMS Biosit SFR -
Dominic De Groote
Sr. Business Manager Pharma
Ghent University
05 Dec 2018 11:00 am-12:30 pm
What are the consequences and benefits of adding patient organisations to existing alliances? How do these collaborations work? How do they create value for the whole life sciences community? What is the actual influence on patients of public/private partnerships? What is the actual involvement of patient organisation in financing the collaborations?
The speakers
-
Andreas L.G. Reimann
Managing Partner, Co-Founder
admedicum Business for Patients -
Mathias Schmidt
CEO
ArmaGen -
Olivier Arnaud
Senior Director
JDRF - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation -
Elli Karagianni
SNE/ Scientific Project Officer - Patient engagement
IMI - Innovative Medicines Initiative -
Mathieu Jouannin
Global Alliance Manager - Public Private Partnerships, Sanofi
Sanofi
TRACK 2:
NURTURING AND LICENSING EARLY-STAGE ASSETS
Early-stage assets evolve in an ecosystem in which TTOs, scientists and entrepreneurs are closely connected. This subject will focus on assessing opportunities in licensing early-stage projects, discussing the mentoring role of TTOs and exploring scientists’ commitment. It aims to underline the difficulties for maturing early-stage assets. How can we transform science into business more frequently and efficiently?
16 Jul 2019
How can a biotech company prepare for a due diligence by big pharma? Which areas are usually underestimated when preparing for a due diligence? What is an efficient due diligence plan? How to prepare an attractive asset to pharma and investors? What are the fundamentals of Due diligence? What are the legal aspects to get prepared to?
The speakers
-
Klaus Dembowsky
CEO
AMCURE GMBH
16 Jul 2019
What does viable mean for TTOs, and do we have the same definition everywhere? On which grounds are TTOs advising to create a spin-off rather than out-licensing the IP or a contract-based R&D collaboration? Which are the benefits, limits, constraints and indication of the spin-out model? What are the key factors to create a well-conceived spin-off company, how to exploit and maximise the value creation?
16 Jul 2019
Numerous tools have been created in the last years, how do these early-stage financing vehicles work? On which bases do they ground funds allocation? What are the expectations of the limited partners? Who are the players involved in such investment tools, and what do they await from their involvement in such early-stage funding and investment tools?
16 Jul 2019
What are the key questions an academic project should address to ensure a valuable licensing deal in the view of pharmaceutical industries? How can a biotech company prepare for a due diligence by big pharma? Which areas are usually underestimated when preparing for a due diligence? What is an efficient due diligence plan? How to prepare an attractive asset to pharma and investors? What are the fundamentals of Due diligence? What are the legal aspects to get prepared to?
The speakers
-
Louise Jonshammar
Attorney at law
AWA
16 Jul 2019
How to valuate an early-stage though promising asset? To what extent do experimented actors help the bio-entrepreneur to aim for a realistic maturation and validation roadmap? How do they help the managing team to understand value inflection points? How do the industry players (pharma, biotech, VC) handle this issue of granting of value to those assets? How could industrial players help academic institutions and TTOs avoid making mistakes at the very early development stages?
The speakers
-
Benjamin Soffer
Head of Strategic Corporate Partnerships
King's College
05 Dec 2018 9:00-10:30 am
When spinning out a company, one strategy applied by the university or TTO is to often take an equity position in the start-up. When this happens, how do the university or TTO play their role as a shareholder? Do they keep a close eye on the development of the company and continue to offer active support or do they act more as a sleeping partner? How is the risk measured and what is the exit short-term/long-term strategy chosen by those unusual shareholders?
The speakers
-
Adrian Ibrahim
Head of Business Development and Technology Transfer
Wellcome Sanger Institute -
Caroline Barelle
CEO
Elasmogen -
Grégoire Franoux
Global Head of Business Development and Licensing
Oxurion (former Thrombogenics) -
Pascale Augé
Chairman of the Executive Management Board
Inserm Transfert
04 Dec 2018 2:30-4:00 pm
What are the latest group actions to have been jointly taken by the industry, academic institutions, equity investors, and governmental bodies that take academic-origin assets as early as possible and inject the proper amount of money into them, in order to get the project licensed at the right moment and at the safest possible stage?
The speakers
-
Steven J. Klein
Vice President, Business Development
IRICoR - Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer-Commercialization of Research -
Michael L. Salgaller
Supervisor, Invention Development and Marketing Unit
National Institutes of Health (NIH) | National Cancer Institute (NCI) | Technology Transfer Center -
Hélène Peyro-Saint-Paul
Partner and Cofounder
LallianSe Entrepreneurs
05 Dec 2018 2:00-3:30 pm
Technology transfer offices play a central role in the biotech ecosystem, as they are meant to bridge the gap between bench and bedside and succeed in commercialising an academic discovery. As most new biotech start-ups arise out of IP resulting from academic research, the efficiency of this system is of outmost importance. This panel discussion will highlight both successes and limits in that externalisation of tech transfer approach.
The speakers
-
Alain Chevallier
Life Sciences Partner
Truffle Capital -
Gábor Lamm
Managing Director
EMBLEM Technology Transfer -
Tiina K. Urv
Program Director Office of Rare Diseases Research
NIH - NCATS - National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences -
Wim Van Camp
General Manager Technology Transfer
Ghent University -
Rafaela Kunz
Open Innovation Consultant
INSEA Consulting -
Lionel Pujol
Operational Support Director
SATT Nord
05 Dec 2018 4:00-5:30 pm
Bringing new therapies to treat rare diseases requires more than scientific innovation. Innovation in business models and incubation financing is critical as the need to find ways to cost effectively develop new medication is becoming highly important. Initiatives like collaboration centres and rare disease centres try to take the best of both worlds by implementing multidimensional approaches to address the needs of the rare disease community. In addition to conducting their own research, collaborative models that feature pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, start-ups, and patient groups are now being put in place.
The speakers
-
Anjan Aralihalli
Venture Partner
CTI Life Sciences Fund II -
Bertrand Verwee
International Health Policy Leader – Rare Diseases
Roche -
Nawal Bahia El Idrissi
Business Developer
Catalyze
TRACK 3:
BIOENTREPRENEURS’ CHALLENGES AT PRE-SEED, SEED AND SERIES A STAGES
The right mindset, a solid presentation and business model are not the only requirements that bioentrepreneurs must fulfil at pre-seed, seed and Series A stages. What are the expectations of project maturity from investors in 2017? How often are new types of early-stage investors involved in financing rounds (including philanthropic and specialised ventures)? How does the angels/seed investors relationship work? Are there increasing interactions and partnerships between pharma and VCs at these initial stages?
16 Jul 2019
Beyond the sole CEO appointment, how to cope with a pre-established governance from an academic spin-off? How can clashes of culture between researchers and industrials be beneficial and craft a balanced managing team? How are VCs expressing their demands and expectations and how are they filled up? To what extent is leaning on international strategic and scientific committees as soon as they are born a recipe of success?
16 Jul 2019
How do the deals and lessons-learned from 2019 investment let us peak at what can be expected for 2020? What are the tips for success for next year? Which therapeutic area will gain or reinforce interest from the VCs? How can you make sure that your business will be on VC’s radar?
The speakers
-
Lucie Ellis
Executive Editor
In Vivo - Pharma Intelligence -
Ingrid Teigland Akay
Managing Partner
Hadean Ventures -
João Ribas
Associate
Novo Seeds
16 Jul 2019
How is it crucial to question the accepted common idea that Europe only lacks bigger funds for bigger roundtables and for more mature companies? Compared to European later-stage investment markets which are positively underfunded, it seems at first glance that the early-stage capital market is healthy and well-fuelled, but is it genuinely the case? Is the European early-stage capital market as rich in players and capital as it is said to be?
16 Jul 2019
Which funding to support new vaccines, drugs and treatment strategies in Africa? What is the role of philanthropic funding? How can foundations and governments form alliances to fund better R&D?
16 Jul 2019
What are the benefits or constraints to go to a corporate venture tool? Is it better to go with a pharma player that wants to be a limited partner in existing funds rather than corporate ventures? AS both have fundamentally different missions, what are the validating and limitation effects of working with a corporate VC? How to balance these two effects?
The speakers
-
Cheryl Zimberlin
Principal
M VENTURES
05 Dec 2018 2:00-3:30 pm
All of these non-dilutive financing sources are becoming increasingly numerous thanks to both the emergence of interest expressed by many trusts and foundations in financing innovative start-ups, and also to the many governmental schemes that are devoted to financing the first steps of biotech start-ups. How do these sources of revenue lead to real leverage effect or create constraints for the companies? What types of constraints do they expose biotech entrepreneurs to?
The speakers
-
Maya Merrell
Director Business and Partnership Development
Fast Forward -
Steve Poirier
Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder
MONOGENIC Pharmaceuticals -
Fatima Sulaiman
Head of Research and Services
Scleroderma & Raynaud’s UK -
Arezki Yaïche
Financial Journalist
Paris Bureau Chief – Mergermarket
04 Dec 2018 4:30-6:00 pm
When creating a biotech start-up, different routes can be taken: the virtual biotech model, the technology platform model, the one single asset company… How do those initial choices influence the exit scenario of the company?
The speakers
-
Peter Leonardi
CEO
OmniCyte -
George Hoffmann
Co-founder and CEO
Network Immunology -
Rodolphe Besserve
Head SuFT Advisory, Start-ups & French Techs
Société Générale Corporate Investments and Banking -
Lucie Ellis
Managing Editor
In Vivo Pharma Intelligence | Informa -
Mark Krul
Partner
Aglaia BioMedical Ventures
05 Dec 2018 11:00 am-12:30 pm
Investment in immunotherapy in 2018 is still attractive and sought out; what is its growth potential after several years of being an investment blockbuster? What have been the 2018 investment successes in immunotherapy? Will immunotherapy disrupt the oncology market? Are we at the growth, maturity, or saturation stage when we talk about investing in immunotherapy?
The speakers
-
Juan García
CEO
BioSeed Capital -
Bram Vanparys
Partner – Health & Care
Gimv -
Madiha Derouazi
Founder and CEO
AMAL Therapeutics -
Khatereh Ahmadi
Executive Director, Oncology Search and Evaluation Lead, European Hub
MSD -
Chris Shelley
Partner and Head of Life Sciences
Penningtons Manches LLP
04 Dec 2018 9:30-11:00 am
The seed investment market is comprised of players with varied degrees of specialisation, from totally agnostic players involved in multiple industries, to pure players focusing on specific therapeutic areas. Do most specialised funds attract the more generalist types in the financing rounds? What is the importance of the amount of seed investment today for cross-industry funds, 100% healthcare-oriented funds, and pure players in the biotech industry, respectively?
The speakers
-
Jan Adams
Managing Director
EMBL Ventures -
Jonathan Tobin
Investment Director
Arix Bioscience -
Jeroen Bakker
Senior Associate
Novo Seeds -
Jean-Charles Brosse
Partner Healthcare and Life Sciences
Positive Capital -
Jacky Vonderscher
CEO
ENYO Pharma -
Joseph Wagman
Junior Analyst
SOSV
