BIO-Europe 2017

The Top of the Tops in International Biotech and Pharma Visit Berlin

BIO-Europe, Europe’s largest annual partnering conference serving the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors, is held this year in Berlin. From November 6 to 8, 2017, CityCube Berlin will host a virtual who’s who on the international biotech scene. Investors, startups and leading decision makers from the biotech, pharmaceutical and finance sectors will gather for three days of intensive exchange at the international BIO-Europe. Highranking guests will participate in workshops, panels and those popular pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings that make the conference so unique. The aim of the get-together is to foster innovative and value-generating ideas by uniting joint interests and expertise.

In 2017, Berlin will host the BIO-Europe with support from Berlin Partner and the regional Cluster for Healthcare Industry and Life Sciences HealthCapital, which will showcase its activities to international guests and also work to bring regional actors together with decision makers from across Germany and abroad. The cluster’s agenda will focus on support for internationalization, regional excellence and future-oriented innovation. Carolin Clement, head of Unit Biotech/Pharma at Berlin Partner for Business and Technology, which manages the HealthCapital cluster, noted: “Among our tasks are highlighting the life sciences region on an international level and facilitating the creation of new companies and cooperative activities. Tradeshows and congresses like BIO-Europe offer the ideal platform to do just that. We provide custom-made location tours and information to all guests, and our in-depth knowledge of the region’s major business and science stakeholders, infrastructure and commercial sites makes it possible for us to generate the right contacts for each respective need.”

The region’s roughly 5,000 employees at over 230 companies make a significant contribution to the federal state’s expanding expertise and economic strength. Roughly 80% carry out R&D in the realm of biomedicine. Today, digitization is the theme driving many of these companies: “In the future, big data will be essential to the life sciences. The challenge will be to derive new knowledge from this multiplicity of complex data, for example in cancer research and in the field of personalized medicine,” notes Dr. Kai Uwe Bindseil, manager of the HealthCapital cluster. Here, the emphasis is placed on first-class R&D facilities such as the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), which focuses on translational research and precision medicine.

These findings are reflected in the new Life Sciences Report which features data on key indicators in Berlin-Brandenburg’s life sciences sector. In addition to providing the latest life sciences figures, the report details current developments in the sector and highlights recent startup activity and innovative projects. 

The region is also a leader in drug development; according to clinictrials.gov, in 2016, Germany maintained its second-place world-ranking in the field of clinical studies carried out by pharma companies. Within Germany, Berlin facilities play the number-one role in this field, participating in 201 of the total of 532 studies completed nationwide.

BIO-Europe will no doubt generate considerable attention for Berlin among the global community of experts before, during and after the conference. International guests will be given a great opportunity to personally acquaint themselves with the capital as a leading location for the biotech and pharma industry. This is indeed the unique advantage of international meetings that take place at a different location each year. As cluster manager Dr. Bindseil argues, visitors to Berlin are consistently most fascinated by the impressive industry numbers, the verve of the city and its unique entrepreneurial spirit:“The large pool of international talent and the dynamic founders’ scene continue to inspire companies from all over the world to come to Berlin and launch development centers here. Large pharmaceutical companies like Bayer and Pfizer seek out contact to startups and work with them on innovations and new business models in labs, incubators and special startup programs.” A fruitful exchange between traditional and future-oriented ideas is decisive to advancing the potential of health care startups in the sector, with special startup boot camps helping to drive this networking forward.

In 2016, roughly 3,700 decision makers representing 2,000 international companies accepted the invitation to the BIO-Europe conference, where more than 20,000 one-on-one meetings engendered multiple cooperative agreements, projects, development mandates and innovative business models. Roughly 65% of participants came from Europe, with roughly 20% coming from North America.

^{The HealthCluster Berlin-Brandenburg – HealthCapital is part of the Joint Innovation Strategy of the States of Berlin and Brandenburg (innoBB). Berlin Partner for Business and Technology and Brandenburg Invest (WFBB) hold joint responsibility for management of the cluster. The objective of this joint-state cooperation is to coordinate and expand regional activity among science, industry and clinical stakeholders as part of a larger strategy aiming to further advance the capital region’s international lead position in the health and life sciences sectors. For more information on the HealthCluster Berlin-Brandenburg: https://www.healthcapital.de/}