BC Biotech Announces Future Plans of the Organization at its Annual General Meeting
Along with the election of Directors, two very important announcements were made during the AGM regarding the future of the organization. First, it was announced that the Board of BC Biotech is looking to re-brand the association as "Life Sciences British Columbia". Karimah stated "this new proposed branding is indicative of the overall shift in the industry and community to be more encompassing of all biotech sub-sectors, recognizing the fact that biotech can have profound effect on BC's traditional resources industries and virtually all aspects of life in British Columbia." In doing so, BC Biotech is negotiating an agreement with BC MedTech to form an organization that is more inclusive of every region and sector in British Columbia. Secondly, the recent appointment of Ms. Shauna Turner as Director of Public Policy and Research for BC Biotech was announced. On September 1st, Shauna joined the BC Biotech Management team as Director of Public Policy and Research. In her new position, Shauna will focus her efforts on building BC Biotech’s capacity and international life sciences network as it relates to public policy that impacts the region. Her role will also include building a research and publication portfolio for BC Biotech on public policy and economic opportunities related to life sciences and increasing the advocacy efforts lead by BC Biotech’s Public Policy Committee. If you would like to contact Shauna Turner, you can do so by email at sturner@bcbiotech.ca. Please click here to view a full bio of Shauna Turner.
To view the full press release on the appointment of the new Director's, please click here. BC Biotech would like to thank David Main of Aquinox Pharmaceuticals and Jim DeMesa of MIGENIX Inc. for their generous contribution to the organization as Directors. David Main has been with BC Biotech from 2001 and during this time he has been a member of the Executive Committee and past Chair of the organization. Jim DeMesa has been a Director of BC Biotech since 2003. Without the dedication and commitment of each of our Directors, BC Biotech would not be successful in building a truly competitive biotech industry in British Columbia. We would like to thank all our outgoing, existing and new Directors for all their dedication and valuable input into the association.
National Biotech Week Launch Event Kicks Off in VancouverThis year, BC Biotech was very pleaased to co-host the National Biotech Week Launch Event in Vancouver. Hosted by BIOTECanada and BC Biotech, and entitled One World - Being a Player in Biotechnology's Global Convergence, the event featured two leading international biotech figures: Dr. Ronald Cape, biotech investor and one of the fathers of the biotechnology industry and David Ewing Duncan, Founder and Editorial Director of BioAgenda.
The room was filled with approximately 200 community leaders who were engaged in presentations & discussions given by both speakers. The speakers provided a US perspective on the role that biotechnology is playing globally and discussed the strengths of Canada's biotech industry. The energy and spirits of the attendees was high as we kicked of this year's National Biotech Week across Canada.
The event was moderated by:
BIOTECanada and our partners would like to acknowledge our supporting Hosts for the National Biotechnology Week Launch: Pfizer Partnering SymposiumA Huge SuccessGlobal partners continue to turn their attention to the tremendous opportunity presented by British Columbia's biotech sector -- and certainly, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, Pfizer Inc. is no exception to that. On September 25th BC Biotech hosted a Plenary Breakfast led by Bill Kluwe, VP Global Strategic Alliances for Pfizer Inc. Bill's presentation gave an overview of the partnering process for Pfizer Inc. and included what kinds of partnerships they are looking for, how they assess opportunities, their interests by therapeutic area and their approach to deal-making. The morning was insightful for all BC Biotech members that attended as they learned more about Pfizer's global goals and initiatives, and how British Columbia can become an integral partner for this world-leading company.
After the sessions, Pfizer's Global Alliances team spent the next day and a half meeting with BC Biotech companies and research institutions to explore potential strategic partnerships. BC Biotech would like to thank all of Pfizer's Global Alliances team for coming to British Columbia and meeting with our companies and initating the process of collaboration.
BC Biotech's Crimes, Passion & Biotechnology SeminarBrings Biotech to StudentsIn alignment with BC Biotech's strategic objective of developing and supporting our human capital in British Columbia, BC Biotech and the BCIT Biotechnology Department organized a one-day student seminar on September 27th to educate students and teachers on the field of biotechnology. BC Biotech was pleased to see over 160 high school students and teachers attend and take part in the speaker presentations and participate in site visits of local biotech facilities.
We were delighted to have the following speakers for this event:
BC Biotech would also like to thank the following member companies for coordinating site visits for the students and teachers: The Crimes, Passion and Biotechnology Seminar was instrumental in getting students and teachers involved and excited about biotechnology and recruiting them for our next SABC competition in April. The SABC program is an annual student project competition focussed on the field of biotechnology where more than $10,000 in cash is awarded to the winning teams. The deadline for proposals is November 10, 2006 with the final competition taking place on April 13, 2007. For more information on SABC, please contact Raman Bhullar, Marketing Specialist at BC Biotech.
BC Biotech Breakfast Speaking Series Caps off National Biotech WeekTo cap off National Biotech Week, BC Biotech along with partners KPMG and McCarthy Tetrault were pleased to present an exciting Breakfast Speaking Series event. Over 125 members attended the breakfast on Thursday, September 28th to hear from two California colleagues - Dr. Jeremy Grunstein of AMGEN and Dr. Daniel Bradbury of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, on what it's taken them to become biotech success stories, and to share experiences and challenges of these leading biotech companies.
Speakers included....
Daniel Bradbury's presentation was titled Building a Sustainable Biopharmaceutical Company where he used Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Gilead Sciences, Calgene Corp and other biotech companies as case studies and talked to the key components of building a succesful biotech business. Dr. Bradbury concluded his presentation by talking about the Keys to Sustainability for an emerging biotech company. These include defining a credible pathway to profitibility, continuing investment in the pipeline and R&D activities of your company, maintaining financial flexibility at all times and having a strategy that can be clearly articulated and understood. Jeremy Grunstien spoke to AMGEN's success of being the number one biotech company in the world. He described all the key therapeutic areas, AMGEN focusses on which including Oncology/Hematology, Inflammation, Neuroscience, Bone Loss, Metabolism and Muscle Disorders, Nephrology, Discovery and Technology and Cardiovascular Diseases. He also outlined the partnering approach that AMGEN takes when they are looking for global partnerships. Dr. Grunstien specifically used the recent aquisition of Burnaby based Abgenix Biopharma as an example of one of their partnering deals they have done in British Columbia. Both presentations from the Breakfast Speaking Series will be posted on BC Biotech website shortly. Please visit www.bcbiotech.ca under our Events section to download the presentations.
BC Biotech would like to thank the following sponsors for the long-standing support of this event :
BC Biotech Leads Successful Mission to Singapore and JapanFrom September 5th to 15th, BC Biotech and five delegates from industry, research, academia and government traveled to Singapore and Japan to meet with representatives from the biotech and pharma industries of both countries. The key goal of this mission was to market British Columbia’s biotech sector and attract investment and partnerships to BC.
BC delegates then traveled to Tokyo and Osaka, Japan where they were involved in a range of meetings, presentations and activities for BioJapan Week. Karimah Es Sabar, Executive Director of BC Biotech and Dr. Robert Sindelar, Dean of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC were invited to participate in the Science and Technology in Society Forum in Kyoto. The “Science and Technology in Society forum” attracts scholars, researchers, policy makers and business leaders from all over the world to meet and discuss science and technology issues of the 21st century. Dr. Sindelar and Karimah Es Sabar participated in the Plenary Session and “Policy Makers” workshop during the forum where they discussed recent trends in science and technology policies, ways in which stakeholders can work together to boost the advancement of science, technology and innovation and developing national strategies that can improve the economy and the quality of life. During their stay in Tokyo, BC delegates took part in an Information Exchange Session at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo where presentations by BC Biotech, BIOTECanada, UBC University – Liaison Office, DFAIT, Industry Canada generated discussion on Canada’s innovation programs and developing a virtual network for information sharing for both Asia and North America. Over 112 Japanese life sciences industry representatives attended a Biotech Cluster Symposium and Partnering Forum in Tokyo and nineteen companies including BC Biotech presented to an audience and discussed building closer ties between the Canadian and Japanese clusters. Karimah Es Sabar, Executive Director of BC Biotech was interviewed by Chemical Daily, a local Japanese newspaper on British Columbia’s biotech sector and building bridges between Asia and BC. The translated version of this article will be available to download in the next issue of biolinks. After Tokyo, BC delegates continued their activities in the Kansai region with visits to the Kobe Medical City and participation in BioJapan, and the JETRO BioLink Symposium in Osaka. Over 13,500 people visited the BioJapan exhibition site during the three day event. BC Biotech had a booth in the Canadian Pavilion showcasing British Columbia's Biotech cluster and marketing the strengths and the level of excellence in life sciences we have here in BC. Eleven individual meetings were arranged along with site visits to leading life sciences incubation and research facilities in the Kansai region, including Kobe Medical City. Dr. Robert Sindelar, Dean of Pharmaceutical Sciences was the keynote speaker at a Canadian Luncheon Seminar. Dr. Sindelar’s presentation was very well received by over 120 participants as he discussed the successes in the translation and commercialization of research throughout Canada. BC Biotech, Quebec and Ontario also made presentations at this Luncheon Seminar. In addition to BioJapan, BC Biotech had presence at the JETRO BioLink Symposium by exhibiting, and participating in the Cluster Networking Session. This session provided Canadian biotech clusters great exposure to more than 300 Japanese companies.
The activities during BioJapan Week have built a solid foundation between Japanese and Canadian biotech sectors. And having presence in both Singapore and Japan has created potential opportunities for our companies. We will be welcoming delegates from both regions at our next BioPartnering North America conference in February. As well BC Biotech has created a framework for future collaborations hopefully such as the recent Xenon and Takeda Agreeement for developing and commercializing their lead product for pain. Register for Biotech 101 - Introduction to the Science of Biotechnology for the Non-ScientistOctober 19-20, 2006 The next offering of Biotech 101 will be October 19-20, 2006 in Building SE42, Room 200 at the BCIT Burnaby Campus. Offered in partnership by BC Biotech and BCIT, and taught by Dr. Paul Barran, Biotech 101 is a popular two-day course that provides a comprehensive overview of the basic principles, technologies, and applications of biotechnology. The cost of Biotech 101 is $695 + GST for BC Biotech Members and $925 + GST for Non-members (the fee includes the cost of all course materials as well as lunch and snacks). Register for Biotech 101 Read the Course Outline Apply to Present at BioPartnering North America 2007Now in it’s 5th year, BioPartnering North America (BPN) www.techvision.com/bpn is supported by leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, financial, and service companies from around the world. This key partnering meeting, held in Vancouver, offer companies a focused business development experience that is consistently excellent, efficient, and cost-effective. To register online, visit www.techvision.com/bpn/registration . A hallmark of BPN is the Open House Presentations that features 56 biopharmaceutical and diagnostics companies that give interactive presentations in specially constructed booths. Presenting companies are available during a 2-hour period for informal discussions with business development executives. Presenting companies devise unique ways to showcase aspects of their businesses including: science and technology; partnering strategies; developmental programs; commercialization plans; product opportunities; and manufacturing capabilities. To apply for an Open House Company Presentation go to www.techvision.com/bpn/registration/presenter/ohapply . BPN showcases a number of young companies from various parts of the world in the Emerging Company presentations. Twenty companies founded in or after 2003 will offer 14-minute podium presentations in the main plenary hall. Each company will then be available for private discussions directly afterwards. To apply for and Emerging Company presentation go to www.techvision.com/bpn/registration/presenter/ecapply . If you have any questions about registering for BPN, please contact Saskia Baur at +1.831.464.4230 or by email at sbaur@techvision.com . For questions regarding company presentations, please contact Lila Taylor at +1.831.464.4230 or by e-mail at ltaylor@techvision.com |
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