BIO InvestorForum and Personalized Medicine Conference Attract Record Crowds
SAN FRANCISCO (October 20, 2005) – The BIO InvestorForum concluded here today with record attendance from the investment community, industry executives and the media. The conference was hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), Bank of America and Lehman Brothers and co-hosted by CIBC World Markets, Jefferies and RBC Capital Markets.
“Our annual InvestorForum was a unique opportunity to hear veteran investment and company executives discuss the latest market and investment trends in life sciences,” said Morrie Ruffin, BIO’s executive vice president of capital formation and business development. “A record number of registrants joined us for two days of workshops on diseases such as cancer, diabetes and lupus, and CEO roundtables on financial issues such as ‘demystifying hedge funds’ and pharma-biotech deal structures. More than 1,000 one-on-one investor meetings were conducted and more than 200 public and venture-stage companies offered detailed presentations.”
Mark McClellan, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, headlined the conference speaking at the luncheon plenary session Wednesday. During his talk, McClellan discussed details of the Medicare Modernization Act, including comments on the new prescription drug plan.
McClellan encouraged attendees to help their older parents, neighbors and friends sign up for the prescription drug benefit beginning Nov. 15. The new Medicare program takes effect Jan. 1.
One day prior to the InvestorForum, BIO and Burrill & Company hosted their first Personalized Medicine Conference. Former Health and Human Services secretary Tommy Thompson delivered the keynote address and participated in a press conference with BIO president Jim Greenwood, G. Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Company, and Greg Simon, president of FasterCures.
Burrill released the following statement on the Personalized Medicine Conference: “There are many scientific, legal, ethical, regulatory, reimbursement and policy challenges that have to be addressed before personalized medicine starts to make significant inroads in today’s healthcare system. Our first Personalized Medicine meeting addressed many of these issues in depth and it is clear from the tremendous response that we had to this event that personalized medicine is a rapidly growing sector.
"There is renewed hope for a future in which an individual's genetic makeup can be determined to help tailor safer, more effective, cost-efficient treatments," Burrill said.
Burrill & Company is a San Francisco-based global leader in life sciences whose principal activities are in Venture Capital, Merchant Banking and Media.
BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations in the United States and 31 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.
###