Conference unites biotech companies and investors for partnering and financing opportunities
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–LifeScience Alley announces participation planned for the BIO Mid-America VentureForum Sept. 24-26, 2007 in Milwaukee, Wis.
“The biosciences sector in Minnesota is a key focal point for continued growth, and we are proud to participate in this important conference to facilitate and encourage partnering and financing opportunities to the broad range of companies throughout the Midwest that are using biotechnology,” said Don Gerhardt, president & CEO of LifeScience Alley.
Travanti Pharma Inc. of Mendota Heights and Celleration, Inc. of Eden Prairie will be presenting their business plans in an effort to attract partnering and financing opportunities. Travanti Pharma designs drug delivery platforms and Celleration produces a wound healing medical device.
The conference is the only national event in the Midwest focused on the biosciences sector. BIO Mid-America VentureForum will bring together life science investors, CEOs, and business development executives. The conference will include company presentations, panel discussions, and for the first time, a partnering forum.
“This event helps to fulfill BIO’s mission of supporting and growing the industry by creating opportunities for companies to connect through partnerships that will ultimately deliver the promise of biotech,” said Jim Greenwood, president and CEO of BIO.
Minnesota is well known as one of the nation’s top clusters for medical devices, and developing a pipeline of early-stage bio-based companies is a key growth opportunity for the state. The fact that none of Minnesota’s medical device companies were on the Fortune 500 list just 20 years ago underscores that a similar rapid advancement in biosciences can be made by investment and supportive business practices. Today, Minnesota’s bioscience sector employs more than 35,000 Minnesotans.
For more information on BIO Mid-America and to register, visit http://bma.bio.org. Advance media registration is now available through September 20, 2007. To register in advance, please visit http://www.bio.org/news/pressreg. Registration is complimentary for credentialed members of the news media. Reporters and editors working full-time for print or broadcast news organizations may register onsite with valid media credentials.
Upcoming BIO Events
BIO InvestorForum 2007
October 9-11, 2007
San Francisco, Calif.
BIO-Europe 2007 International Partnering Conference
November 12-14, 2007
Hamburg, Germany
Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy
November 14-16, 2007
Honolulu, Hawaii
2008 BIO International Convention
June 17-20, 2008
San Diego, Calif.
Visit www.bio.org for information on all upcoming events.
About LifeScience Alley
www.lifesciencealley.org or www.lifesciencealleyconference.org
LifeScience Alley™ is a nonprofit trade association supporting the Minnesota and surrounding region’s life science industry. It comprises a broad range of over 500 member organizations that employ approximately 250,000 people in Minnesota and thousands more throughout the U.S. and world. LifeScience Alley actively informs and advises public policy makers on health care, bioscience and economic resource issues important to its membership.
About BIO
BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and 31 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.
About BIO Mid-America VentureForum
BIO Mid-America will feature presentations from up to 60 promising seed, early- and late-stage private biotech product and platform companies from the Midwest as well as presentations from leading North American venture capital firms in the life sciences field. Workshops and plenary sessions will be offered on trends in the biotech industry, with a special focus on key success factors for early-stage companies, research and development, market trends, and financing. In addition, there will be formal and informal networking opportunities with industry CEOs and venture capital leaders.
