BIO TO HOST SECOND ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL VENTURE FORUM OCT. 1-2
(BIO) today announced that it will host its second annual BIO VentureForum on October 1-2, 2002, in San Francisco. BIO VentureForum 2002 is the largest international investor conference for venture-stage biotech product and technology firms. The conference will be held at the Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco.
The BIO VentureForum 2002 advisory board will screen and select 120
biotechnology companies seeking early and late-stage private funding. Those companies will present their business plans to an international audience of top venture capital firms, investment funds and angel investors.
In addition to the presentations, BIO VentureForum will feature a series of
workshops on financing, drug development, commercialization strategies, mergers and acquisitions, and other issues of concern to biotech entrepreneurs.
Last year’s VentureForum showcased 93 companies from around the world and
resulted in venture capital investment totaling $400 million. Recent research by Ernst & Young showed that despite downturns in technology investing generally, in 2001 the biotech industry raised more than $10 billion in equity financing in the United States and Europe – its second-best year. In addition, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’s MoneyTree survey, early-stage companies attracted 19 percent of the overall venture dollars invested in Q1 2002, up from 16 percent in Q4 2001.
“BIO VentureForum will give entrepreneurs and investors an ideal venue to meet
each other, identify opportunities, and educate the venture community on the wealth of exciting new business ideas and technologies in the health-care sector,” said Morrie Ruffin, BIO’s vice president for business development and emerging companies. “Companies that are somewhat more established but still need venture funding to fully execute their strategies will be able to describe their technologies and products as well.”
The BIO VentureForum Advisory Board, composed of the industry’s most
renowned technologists, venture capitalists, business leaders and private investors, will select the presenting companies based on applications and business plans. Those companies will then participate in regional “boot camps” prior to the forum, where they will be coached by a team of financial and business professionals on how to effectively communicate their business plans to investors.
BIO VentureForum 2002 Advisory Board members include representatives
from Abingworth Management Ltd., Academy Funds, Advent International, Agilent Ventures, Alloy Ventures Inc., Alta Partners, A.M. Pappas & Associates, ASM Resources Inc., Atlas Venture, BioAsia Investment LLC, Burrill & Company, CalPers, Delphi Ventures, Domain Associates LLC, Emerging Technology Partners LLC, Equity4Health LLC, Forward Ventures, InterWest Partners, Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., JPMorgan Partners LLC, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Morgenthaler Ventures, MPM Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Oxford Bioscience Partners, Pacific Growth Equities Inc., Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, Prospect Street Ventures, Quaker Health Ventures, Sanderling Ventures, Skyline Ventures, Sofinnova Ventures Inc., Sprout Venture Partners, Techno Venture Management, Venrock Associates, Versant Ventures, and Warburg Pincus LLC.
In addition to BIO, VentureForum partners include the National Venture Capital
Association and BIOCOM/San Diego. For more information on the BIO VentureForum 2002, please visit www.bio.org.
BIO represents more than 1,000 biotechnology companies, academic institutions,
state biotechnology centers and related organizations in all 50 U.S. states and 33 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of health-care, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.
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