| The theme of the BIA's successful 2nd Annual CEO & Investor Conference, held in London towards the end of last year was 'From Promise to Products'. This was a timely choice given the re-focus of investor sentiment which underscored the market conditions for life science investing throughout 2001 and has continued in the first quarter of 2002. The name of the game is developing products to deliver long-term and sustainable value (nothing new there, of course) and this was the underlying proposition behind all of the elements of this two-day conference. Run by the BIA in partnership with Technology Vision Group (TVG), the aim of the CEO & Investor Conference was to provide a platform for both public and private European companies and their investors to present to, and engage with, each other on the product delivery question. This assumed various structured forms including moderated CEO roundtable discussions, which were also co-ordinated to illustrate different case scenarios for acceleration towards products. In addition, there were themed investor panels that focused on innovation in both science and partnering plus the leveraging of intellectual property assets to raise finance. Beyond the parallel CEO and investor panels, the third track featured a series of European company presentations from a range of public and private European companies across multiple technology platforms and therapeutic areas - all with one element in common: the drive towards products. |
