BIO-Europe Spring(R) Adds New Conference Program Highlights

In the final weeks to the start of BIO-Europe Spring(R), April
7-9, 2008 in Palacio Municipal de Congresos, Madrid, Spain, EBD Group
today announced new program highlights covering a wide selection of
important industry topics.

The new program highlights include:

-- Global Partnering - Building (or Stumbling) Blocks of
International Licensing. This interactive workshop will be
moderated by Joseph S. Dillon, Senior Vice President,
Corporate Development and Valuations, MattsonJack. The panel
will include Kevin Taylor, Vice President Business
Development, Adolor Corporation; James Hattersley, Vice
President, Corporate Business Development, Antares Pharma,
Inc., Jochen Eimer, Associate, Mayer Brown LLP; and Dr. Josep
Lamarca, Senior Director of Corporate Development, Licensing
Projects, Almirall. In this workshop participants will get an
insight into researching, assessing and architecting
partnering opportunities with global potential. What are the
challenges faced by deal-makers in today´s fiercely
competitive licensing and M&A environment? What are the
partnering, due diligence and deal structuring issues and how
can they be addressed? What are the analysis techniques for
global market models? These and other critical questions will
be answered.

-- Why should BD care about Translational Medicine? Translational
medicine is certainly a new favorite buzzword within the
research community, but, like all buzzwords, the term can mean
different things to different people. This interactive session
will cut through the clutter with the help of an expert panel
of leading industry scientists, clinicians, and technology
thought leaders to focus on key areas such as: What is
translational medicine as it applies to the biotech &
pharmaceutical industry? How is translational medicine
changing practices within the industry? What does
translational medicine mean to business developers? Why should
we care? This session will be moderated by John Freshley,
Chief Business Officer, Compendia Bioscience. The panelists
will be Dr. Judith Sebolt-Leopold, CSO and Co-Founder,
Oncovera Therapeutics, Inc.; and Dr. Linda Pullan, President,
Pullan Consulting.

-- Europe: Turning Ambition into Business. Europe has a strategy
for biotechnology as a continent but its best achievements are
driven nationally and by the achievements of individual
companies, entrepreneurs and investors. Europe has great
strengths in many areas of R&D, in technology diversity, and
in its enthusiasm for success in biotechnology. In areas such
as cancer biology, immunology, enzyme technology, and bio
energy, European efforts are world leading. Social health care
creates better national bioinformatics, biobanking, and
clinical trial networks. Its governments are competing to
create better business environments - cutting taxes,
incentivising investment, and promoting the commercialization
of research. But it is the responses of companies to this
environment that determines the level of success. This session
will show how European companies have built on technological
strengths, channelled scarce resources like management and
finance, and ultimately succeeded. The moderator will be John
Hodgson, Director, Critical I Ltd. Meanwhile, Dr. Iordanis
Arzimanoglou, CEO, Alexander Innovation Zone/Thessaloniki; Dr.
Fermin A. Goytisolo, Licensing Manager, Business Development &
Licensing, Esteve; and Dr. Keith McCullagh, CEO, Santaris
Pharma A/S, will be panelists at this session.

-- Funding Early Stage Deals in Europe. Moderated by Regina
Hodits, Life Sciences Partner, Atlas Venture, this workshop
will feature panelists Dr. Sijmen de Vries, CEO, 4-Antibody
AG; Eduardo Bravo, CEO, Cellerix; Simon Meier, Investment
Manager, Roche Venture Fund, F. Hoffmann - La Roche; and Dr.
Joel Jean-Mairet, Managing Partner, YSIOS Capital Partners.
Raising capital is the major challenge for small biotech
companies in Europe. Faced with funding difficulties in the
old continent, EU companies often look to establish a presence
in the US, or are acquired by their better funded US
counterparts. Despite these difficulties, there are examples
of successful early stage funding in Europe. This workshop
will showcase several of these examples and explore different
ways to raise capital in Europe.

-- Creating Value in the Young Life Science Company. The
moderator will be Diane Romza-Kutz, Chair, Life Sciences
Practice Group, Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP. Panelists will
be Mr. Hershel Berry, Managing Partner, Blueprint Life Science
Group; Judy Robinett, Partner, North Point Analytics; Timothy
L. Enns, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications &
Business Development, SuperGen, Inc.; and Patricia Donahue,
Vice President, Collaborations Business, XOMA US LLC. There
are always difficulties in moving a young and under funded
life science company forward. Most of these companies don´t
recognize the issues, having rarely dealt with them before.
Many young companies fail because the founders do not
understand the businesses implications on how to "run" the
company as a real company; young companies fail to recognize
that some initial deals can be made to create value and
continue the development of their products, the "quid pro quo"
deals; and these companies have little training on how to make
the right licensing deal. These topics will be discussed with
some case study examples during this session.

-- Alzheimer´s Partnerships - the Valuation Dilemma. This session
will be moderated by Dr. Mark A. Cochran, CEO & Executive
Director, Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute
(BRNI). The panelists will be Dr. Ian S. Watts, Executive
Director, Neurology Evaluations, Strategic Planning & Business
Development, AstraZeneca; Dr. Manuel Lopez-Figueroa, Vice
President, Bay City Capital; Tim Armour, President and CEO,
Cure Alzheimer´s Fund; and Kees Been, CEO, EnVivo
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. How do you value pre-clinical and
clinical-stage assets in a disease area where the success
heretofore has been almost non-existent? Nevertheless, because
of the massive unmet medical need and market potential in
Alzheimer´s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, the
demand for even pre-clinical programs has led to record deals
in the last two years. Almost every large pharmaceutical firm
is desirous of having an Alzheimer´s therapeutic program in
its portfolio.

This session will feature the principals involved in some of the
most recent transactions in the Alzheimer´s field and will examine how
the rapidly shifting opinion around the various pathophysiological
orthodoxies (aBeta vs. Tau) affects deal valuations. The participants
will also discuss the important interplay between biological markers,
early disease diagnosis, and drug development.

-- Beyond Targeted Therapeutics - How will Pharma Value the Next
Generation of Oncology Companies. In 2007 Venture Capitalists
(VC) poured more than US$4 billion into privately held drug
discovery and/or development companies in 181 financing deals
according to Windhover´s Strategic Transaction Database. The
biggest challenge for oncology-focused companies seems to be
the ability to differentiate. It is not just about creating
another start-up, it is about finding the best way to leverage
on a specific technology and approach the oncology market with
a clear strategy. The final aim is to become attractive
candidates for pharmaceutical companies and create value by
advancing programs in later stage clinical trials before
out-licensing to a major partner. What is the thought process
of early-stage companies in the oncology space? What are the
specific challenges that they face? Is there a best
fund-raising or partnering strategy to adopt? What are VCs
looking for when planning their investments in oncology
companies?

Tim Haines, Partner, Abingworth Management Ltd. will be the
moderator of this session. Panelists will be Dr. Martin Buckland,
Chief Business Officer, Astex Therapeutics; Dr. Mohamed Ragab, Pharma
Partnering Oncology Leader, Hoffmann-La Roche; Dr. George S.
Golumbeski, Vice President, Business Development, Licensing and
Strategy Oncology, Novartis Pharmaceuticals; and Thomas M. Estok,
President & CEO, Tragara Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

-- Regenerative Medicine: Evaluating the Hype, the Hope and the
Reality. The moderator will be Dr. Reni J. Benjamin, Managing
Director, Rodman & Renshaw, LLC. Panelists will be Dr. Marc H.
Hedrick, President, Cytori Therapeutics; and Dr. Penny
Johnson, Director of Research, UK, Intercytex Ltd. Therapeutic
advances and increased funding for novel, more effective
treatments have positively affected the global health care
market. At the same time, life expectancy has increased along
with the incidence of diseases associated with aging. Many of
these age-related diseases develop from the loss or
mis-regulation of specific cell types in the body, including a
variety of neurological diseases (Parkinson´s disease,
Alzheimer´s disease), metabolic diseases (diabetes) and
cardiovascular diseases (heart failure, myocardial
infarction). While many therapies currently exist to address
these multi-billion dollar markets, none offer the long-term
curative potential to fundamentally alter the disease like
regenerative medicine.

This revolutionary field offers unique opportunities to explore
and develop new therapeutic approaches to potentially prevent, treat
and cure many debilitating and life-threatening diseases. A growing
knowledge base has helped to ascertain the potential of these new
technologies, but many challenges remain, including commercialization,
and the lack of a clear clinical and regulatory pathway. This panel
will explore some of these issues and the impact they are having on
deal valuations in this field.

-- The Pharma Excitement Over RNAi and Antisense Technology.
Funding and partnership opportunities for
oligonucleotide-based therapeutics and technologies are at an
all time high. RNA interference and antisense technology
platforms are at the forefront of both licensing and M&A
activity; for example, Alnylam´s $331 million up-front
alliance with Roche or Isis´ recent deal with Genzyme, and
Merck´s $1.1 billion takeout of Sirna Therapeutics. Innovative
delivery technologies and other oligonucleotide-based
technologies such as aptamers may also come into play.

But different technology platforms and IP positions mean a wide
variety of deal structures are available for oligonucleotide
therapeutics companies. Different technologies may be suited to
different partnership structures or therapeutic spaces. Smaller firms
must balance the need for pharmaceutical deal dollars and validation
with dilution concerns and eventual M&A exit opportunities.
Pharmaceutical companies eager for large molecule expertise in these
exciting technological areas face buy-vs-ally decisions; which deal
structures help buyers get the best from these technologies?

The moderator Chris Morrison, Senior Writer, Windhover
Information, will lead a discussion on some of the industry´s most
interesting platforms and the licensing deals they´ve
generated--whether target-based, therapeutic area-covering, exclusive
rights to therapies or non-exclusive rights for technology access.
Featured panelists include Peter Williams, Senior Director, Business
Development, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Dr. Philip McGurk,
Director, Worldwide Business Development, Pfizer, Inc.; Dr. Keith
McCullagh, CEO, Santaris Pharma A/S; and Thomas Christely, COO,
Silence Therapeutics plc.

-- Developing a Globalization Strategy - what small biotech can
learn from Big Pharma. Moderatored by Dr. Dee Athwal, Chief
Scientific Officer, moksha8, this session will explore some of
the new acute and specialty care market opportunities emerging
in other parts of the world. It will evaluate options
available to drug development companies to consider regional
partnering options for their programs that will provide a
better return and better access to rapidly maturing acute care
markets in these new territories. The panelists will be R.
Stuart Swanson, Partner and Head of Corporate Development,
PharmaSwiss; and Venkat Jasti, CEO, Suven Lifesciences.

-- Clusters´ Cooperation: Benefits for Companies. The concept of
"Clusters" has emerged as a focal point in competitiveness and
economic development over the last decade and has become an
important component of regional and national development plans
(Porter). Given the fact that many regions in Europe have been
focusing on biotechnology as a core industry, the sector has
seen bioclusters emerging in most countries. The workshop will
look into the specific benefits that clustering activities
offer to companies and biotech operators. With a view to
European networks such as NetBioClue (networking biotechnology
clusters in Europe), AFIBIO (access to finance in
biotechnology), and CEBR (the council of European BioRegions),
all supported by the European Commission, and with a view to
the activities they have carried out, the workshop will tackle
the key elements for biotech companies development which
clustering can support and facilitate. This session will be
moderated by Fabrizio Conicella, General Manager, Bioindustry
Park Canavese SpA, and accompanied by panelists Dr. Olivier
Kitten, Project Leader, AfiBio; Dr. Klaus Plate, Member of
Steering Committee, Council of European Biotech Regions; Dr.
Jeff Solomon, Member of Steering Committee, Council of
European Biotech Regions; and Dr. Chiara Cattaneo, Project
Leader, NetBioClue.

Notes to Editors:

Entry to BIO-Europe Spring(R) 2008 is free to the media, including
full access to the partnering system, sessions, press conferences,
workshops, and pre-arranged partnering meetings. Visit the BIO-Europe
Spring conference website at http://www.ebdgroup.com/bes/press_reg.htm
for detailed information on this year´s conference and online
registration. When you register online, please indicate in the comment
field that you are requesting a complimentary press registration.
Please fax a copy of your press pass to complete your complimentary
media registration to fax number +49 (89) 23 88 756 55.

About BIO-Europe Spring 2008

The BIO-Europe Spring(R) event brings together international
decision-makers from all sectors of the biotechnology industry, and
features the successful combination of one-to-one meetings, company
presentations, panel discussions and a lively exhibition.

Positioned as the springtime counterpart to EBD Group´s flagship
conference, BIO-Europe, the BIO-Europe Spring event continues the
tradition of providing life science companies with high caliber
partnering opportunities. The event enables biotechnology companies to
identify, meet and network with companies across the life sciences
value-chain from large biotech and pharma companies to financiers and
innovative start-ups.

About EBD Group

EBD Group is the leading partnering firm for the global
biotechnology industry. Since 1993, firms in the life sciences have
leveraged EBD Group´s partnering conferences, technology and services
to identify opportunities and to develop strategic relationships that
drive their business.

EBD Group´s conferences (run in collaboration with leading
industry partners and international trade associations) include
BIO-Europe, the world´s largest stand-alone life science partnering
conference (organized with the support of the Biotechnology Industry
Organization, BIO); BIO-Europe Spring; BioPharm America(TM) (EBD´s new
North American partnering event); and BioEquity Europe (co-organized
with BioCentury Publications and BIO).

EBD´s sophisticated web-based partnering service,
partneringONE(TM), is also used at numerous third-party events around
the world. Outside of the conference format, EBD´s consultants can
provide hands-on assistance for firms seeking to in- or out-license
products and technologies. EBD Group has offices in the USA and
Europe.