The 9th Annual BIO Asia International Conference will feature industry leaders discussing the future of the Asian biotech industry. The Conference is timely since it will bring together U.S and European drug development companies with Asian biotech and pharmaceutical companies interested in research collaborations and licensing agreements.
The conference brings together a diverse international audience, with 50 percent of all participating companies from Asia, and more than 75 percent of attendees representing pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The past two BIO Asia conferences hosted more than 1,000 partnering meetings each year, which represented a 30 percent increase from 2009.
The past several years have brought about big changes in the biotech industry in Japan. In 2005, the biotechnology market in Japan was estimated at 1.76 trillion yen (approximately 22.6 billion U.S. dollars). Since 2005, the market has grown substantially and many new emerging companies have opened their doors. The earthquake in 2011 presented the financial markets with a roadblock, and venture capital also slowed to a crawl. Now experts are trying to predict what the future holds for Japan and Asia overall.
The BIO Asia program will feature discussions on the latest deal-making trends and outlook for the next 5-10 years, highlights include the following:
Opening Plenary Session: Cross-Border M&A – Takeda/Nycomed
Nominated to be the IN VIVO Blog’s M&A Deal of the Year for 2011, Takeda’s $13.7B acquisition of Nycomed is the largest cross-border transaction by a Japanese company and provided Takeda with greater infrastructure in Europe, an immediate entry into emerging markets, and an immediate increase in cash flow. The deal provided a hefty return to Nycomed investors, and even yielded a coveted “Private Equity Deal of the Year” award at the European M&A awards for primary investor Nordic Capital. This deal both expands Takeda’s global footprint and reinforces Japan’s global leadership in the biopharma industry. Senior executives crucial to the execution of this stellar deal will conduct a deep-dive on the deal terms and integration process.
Panelists:
Ken Araki, Senior Director, Head of Corporate Project Management, Corporate Strategic Planning, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited
Gunnar Gårdemyr, VP, Head of Global Licensing Business Development Operations, Takeda Pharmaceuticals International
The New World of Pharma Collaborations
This panel will illustrate a set of new types of collaborations that bring together funding and know-how to address pharma’s needs in the world of patent expirations, lower R&D productivity, and other pipeline challenges. This unique panel will feature 3 parties and 3 separate deals that have been completed among them. Two of these deals are very recent, and Bio Asia will be the first public platform in which this new development model and two of these deals will be discussed. More details will be announced in coming weeks prior to BIO Asia.
Panelists:
Robert DeBenedetto, CPA, President & CEO, SFJ Pharmaceuticals
Rami Suzuki Ph.D., Senior Director of Business Development Department, Eisai Co, Ltd.
Johan Westblad, M.Sc., MBA, is Associate Director, Business Development at Quintiles Japan
The Next Frontier—Asia in 5-10 Years
Asia has long been thought of as the next frontier for the biotech industry with large pharma and investors staking their claim over the last decade in Japan and more recently, in China. Korean biotech is rapidly becoming a real player as well, so what can we expect to see from this growing market in the next 5-10 years? Will the landscape evolve similar to that of Europe and the US, with biotech epicenters, such as Boston and San Francisco? When will home-grown novel products reach market and which parts of Asia will they come from? Will sufficient capital markets exist to grow and sustain life sciences companies? Pharma executives, investors and other industry leaders will convene to discuss how the biotech landscape will evolve in Asia in the next 5-10 years.
Moderator:
David Flores, Co-Founder, President & CEO, BioCentury Publications, Inc.
Panelists:
Paul B. Bolno, MD, MBA , Vice President, Worldwide Business Development, Head of Asia, GlaxoSmithKline PLC
Paul Hudson, President, AstraZeneca KK
Kewen Jin, Managing Director, Nimbus Innoworks
Joong Myung Cho, PhD, President & CEO, CrystalGenomics, Inc
To learn more about the BIO Asia International Conference, registration and up-to-date program information, please visit the web site here. Advance media registration is available here. Registration is complimentary for credentialed members of the media.
