Dr. Jurgen Ruttgers, the Minister President of the State of
Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW), will be addressing the conference on his
plans to develop the region as a biotech hub. Dr. Ruttgers is arguably
Germany's leading political figurehead for the life science sector. In
the mid 1990s, as Germany's Minister of Science and Technology, he was
responsible for devising and executing Germany's BioRegio programme,
which laid the foundations for Germany's thriving biotech sector
today.
Additionally, Jim Greenwood, President of BIO, will be announcing
a new coalition to support development of the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA), the US body that approves new drugs. "We have
come together as a broad and diverse coalition to call for a renewed
public commitment for the FDA. The agency needs increased support in
order to continue its mission as it faces a revolutionary new era of
scientific innovation and advancement. Renewed support also will help
enable the agency to continue its historic global leadership as the
`gold standard' for regulatory science and consumer protection."
Dusseldorf's Lord Mayor, Joachim Erwin, will address the
conference highlighting that he sees BIO-Europe's choice of location
as a vote of confidence in the city as a life science location. On
Sunday 5th November, the North Rhine-Westphalia state capital
Dusseldorf will be hosting a welcome reception for all participants of
the conference.
Also making an announcement at the conference, Peer Schatz and his
team at Qiagen will be holding a press briefing dedicated to "Setting
Standards in Biomedical Tissue Management". This will address the
current difficulties seen in lack of standardization in the
preparation of biological samples through collection, stabilisation,
and homogenisation of a sample; its identification, tracking and
storage; and the purification of analytes such as DNA, RNA, and
protein.
BIO-Europe, and its new sister conference BIO-Europe Spring, has a
dedicated press office to disseminate news, stories, and conference
themes directly to journalists in advance of the conference and as
they develop and evolve at the conference. This year there will be
more media briefings and opportunities for one-on-one meetings.
At last year's BIO-Europe in Dresden, Germany, the number of
delegates topped 1450, from more than 850 companies, representing 34
countries. There were 167 biotech company presentations, a host of
international exhibitors, and 5124 scheduled one-on-one partnering
meetings.
BIO-Europe 2006 is co-hosted by the Biotechnology Industry
Organization (BIO) and EBD Group in partnership with European
Biopharmaceutical Enterprises (EBE).
Media registration at BIO-Europe 2006 is complimentary.
Please visit the conference website at
www.ebdgroup.com/bioeurope for detailed information on this year's
event and online registration.
