Sponsor Profiles

The TVM Capital Life Sciences Practice with 820 million Euros ($1.26B USD) under management is one of the largest venture and growth investors in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals in Europe and the US, with a growing presence in Asia. The Life Sciences team builds on the expertise, experience, international approach and demonstrated success in more than 110 previous investments and almost 40 IPOs from our biotechnology and pharmaceutical portfolio of companies. Twenty years of successful investing and value creation, in traditional early and late-stage venture as well as venture growth and growth capital, makes the TVM Capital Life Science Practice a unique partner for the needs of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Founded in 1983, TVM Capital is headquartered in Munich with an U.S. office in Boston. More information: www.tvm-capital.com

 

Merck Serono is the division for innovative prescription pharmaceuticals of Merck, a global pharmaceutical and chemical group. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Merck Serono discovers, develops, manufactures and markets innovative small molecules and biopharmaceuticals to help patients with unmet medical needs. Its North American business operates in the United States and Canada as EMD Serono.

Merck Serono has leading brands serving patients with cancer (Erbitux®), multiple sclerosis (Rebif®), infertility (Gonal-f®), endocrine and cardiometabolic disorders (Glucophage®, Concor®, Euthyrox®, Saizen®, Serostim®), as well as psoriasis (Raptiva®).

With an annual R&D expenditure of around €1bn, Merck Serono is committed to growing its business in specialist-focused therapeutic areas including neurodegenerative diseases, oncology, fertility and endocrinology, as well as new areas potentially arising out of research and development in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.

 

The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world's 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 135 affiliates in 47 countries and nearly 40,000 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine. In 2007, Boehringer Ingelheim posted net sales of almost 11 billion euros while spending one fifth of net sales in its largest business segment of prescription medicines on research and development.

Boehringer Ingelheim is committed to its goal of discovering, developing and profiling new products which represent high therapeutic value for the patient and health care providers. And its pipeline is complemented with licensing opportunities in all therapeutic areas the company specialises in. Indeed, Boehringer Ingelheim has alliances with many pharmaceutical and biotech companies around the globe. Moreover, Boehringer Ingelheim actively seeks international licensing and partnering opportunities based on innovation and therapeutic progress in its core areas of therapeutic interest, namely respiratory, cardiovascular, virology, metabolism, CNS, oncology, urology and immunology.

Boehringer Ingelheim offers reliability as proven by nearly 125 years in the business as a family-owned company, provides appropriate resources and funding, furnishes competence in research and development, demonstrates a proven track record of fast development and registration, and offers franchises in key indication areas with successful launches and sales development together with a global market coverage.

In addition, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the leading companies for industrial customer manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals by offering the entire technology value chain in development and production at its biopharmaceutical facilities in Biberach (Germany) and in Vienna (Austria). These large-scale manufacturing sites deliver biopharmaceutical products such as therapeutic proteins, fusion proteins, protein scaffolds, monoclonal antibodies, antibody fragments and plasmid DNA. The Biberach site specialises in highly efficient mammalian cell culture systems with yields well above industry standard in animal-component-free media, whereas the Vienna site offers high expression in bacteria and yeast with exceptionally high productivities using proprietary systems. In the plasmid DNA manufacturing arena Boehringer Ingelheim in Austria has set the standard and supplies early- to late-stage clinical trials with gene therapeutics and DNA vaccines for international clients. www.boehringer-ingelheim.com

 

 

Find out why Baxter, Lonza, Barr Pharmaceuticals, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, Beckman Coulter, TEVA and other major biotech and pharmaceutical companies have chosen to invest in the Czech Republic. Life sciences comprise one of the country's fastest growing sectors and the Czech Republic recognises that a top-quality pharmaceutical and biotech industry forms one of the pillars of the knowledge economy. The Czech Republic has a well-established and strong network of scientific institutes with a tradition that includes Dr. Gregor Mendel, who formulated the laws of heredity and top universities that have been in existence for over 600 years. The general population accepts the results of biotechnologi­cal research quite favourably.

 

CzechInvest provides comprehensive services for investors (free of charge):

• full information assistance
• handling of investment incentives
• business property identification
• supplier identification
• tailor made visits
• access to EU structural funds
• aftercare services

www.czechinvest.org

 

Solvay Pharmaceuticals is an independent and ethical global industrial group with a balanced portfolio of sustainable profitable and growing businesses under careful environmental management :

Amongst the world leaders in selected markets and products either alone or with sound complementary business partners.
Valued by its customers as a highly competent, reliable and competitive solution provider.
With a clear, motivating organization, developing and empowering people and teams through rewarding and challenging jobs.
Acting as good corporate citizens, caring for the health, safety and environment of their employees and of the community at large.
Solvay Pharmaceuticals focuses on sustaining and building on its market leadership in the field of cardio-metabolic, CNS, influenza vaccines and pancreatic enzymes by relying on a full R&D in these fields as well as on external product in-licensing and acquisitions.

http://www.solvaypharmaceuticals.com/

 

Investment Challenge Award sponsor

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world’s leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As the world’s biggest biotech company and an innovator of products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people’s health and quality of life. Roche is the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics and drugs for cancer and transplantation, and is a market leader in virology. It is also active in other major therapeutic areas such as autoimmune diseases, inflammatory and metabolic disorders and diseases of the central nervous system. In 2007 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 36.8 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 9.3 billion francs. Roche has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai, and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D in 2007. Worldwide, the Group employs about 79,000 people. Additional information is available on the Internet at www.roche.com.

 

Associate Sponsor

 

Taylor Wessing LLP is a leading international law firm advising life science and healthcare businesses, those who fund them and those who work for them.

Taylor Wessing's extensive Life Sciences and Healthcare Group is a multi-disciplinary group combining lawyers from Taylor Wessing’s intellectual property, corporate, competition, employment and real estate practices. The team includes 15 lawyers with first degrees in life sciences subjects, of whom 5 have PhDs. The size of the team, with its in-depth industry and scientific knowledge, gives us a substantial market advantage.

The Group represents businesses, academic institutions and individuals based in Europe, US and all over the world. Taylor Wessing has offices in the UK (London and Cambridge), Germany, France, Belgium and Dubai, and associated offices in Alicante, Beijing and Shanghai.

Taylor Wessing has been voted European Life Sciences IP Firm of the Year at the Managing Intellectual Property Awards 2008 and is top rated in the IP and Commercial and Partnering sections of PLC’s Cross-border Life Sciences Handbook.

Taylor Wessing is also top rated in the Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology section of UK Legal 500, the Life Sciences section of UK Chambers and was voted Technology, Media and Telecoms Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2008.