BIO-Europe® 2012 to be held in Hamburg, Germany - "Gateway to the Nordic region" is ripe for dealmaking

EBD Group, the leading partnering firm for the life science industry, will hold the 18th annual BIO-Europe® international partnering conference in Hamburg, Germany November 12–14, 2012 at the CCH Congress Center Hamburg. The 2011 event boasted 14,765 scheduled one-to-one meetings with 3,565 licensing opportunities posted from among 1,596 companies that attended. Partnering remains the core drug development strategy of big pharma and biotech in the current economy. Pharma's most high-dollar dealmakers of 2012 (including Abbott, AstraZeneca, and Merck) with deals valuing over USD 1 billion* are already confirmed to attend.

As Europe's largest partnering conference serving the global biotechnology industry, BIO-Europe® attracts the world's top dealmakers from biotech, pharma and finance along with exciting emerging companies.

"The Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein region has a thriving life science sector that is internationally competitive," said Carola Schropp, President of EBD Group. "Big pharma has a presence there, as well as new and innovative biotech and medtech companies with expertise ranging from implants and imaging technology, analytical and diagnostic products, and promising therapeutic agents, to world-class research and development. BIO-Europe will effectively showcase this expertise to an international delegation."

This year's event, in collaboration with Norgenta, is focused on opportunities for Nordic and north German companies to expand into global relationships. Norgenta is the service agency of Hamburg and the Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein, established to support life science activities in Northern Germany. "Life Science Nord" is the umbrella brand, under which the agency connects life science activities for different stakeholder groups to set up an internationally competitive cluster.

"Bio-Europe is a strategic event for the Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein regions because it will bring international life science business development right to our door," said Hinrich Habeck, Managing Director of Norgenta.

The 2012 conference is also collaborating with ScanBalt™ fmba, the BioRegion association comprised of health and life science based sectors in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Poland, Northern Germany, Northwestern Russia and Northern Netherlands (ScanBalt BioRegion). ScanBalt members will receive a discount of EUR 200 off the prevailing registration rate.

"ScanBalt is dedicated to promoting health and bio-economy in order to become a globally competitive macro-region and innovation market," said Peter Frank, General Secretary of ScanBalt.

This year's opening plenary features industry staple Chris Morrison of Elsevier Business Intelligence as moderator for "New Investment Models for Early Stage Development." Speakers on the plenary include Hubert Birner of TVM Life Science Management GmbH, and Gilles Nobecourt of Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, both of whom have done major deals this year.

Networking opportunities can begin before the conference starts by joining partnering360®, the open online network for life science dealmakers at www.partnering360.com. partnering360 helps delegates have a more productive experience leading up to and through the conference, and enables them to plan for upcoming events and grow their partnering network.

Register before August 31, 2012 and save EUR 200. Registration information for BIO-Europe can be found online at www.ebdgroup.com/bioeurope/registration/index.php