Meeting with leading large pharmaceutical firms headquartered in Europe such as GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Aventis, Roche, and Bayer, fifteen California biotechnology companies from around the state report potential partnership deals that could be worth up to a total of $400 million in 2 years or more. These potential deals are a result of initial contacts made by the California firms during the first California Biotechnology Trade Mission to BioSquare--a major European biotechnology partnering conference in Lyon, France last spring. "We are trying to identify major European and U.S. pharma companies to partner on our antibody discovery capabilities, as well as to license our drug candidates for global development," said Dr. Joseph Fisher, mission participant and senior manager for business development of Raven Biotechnologies, Inc. Raven is based in South San Francisco, California and most recently closed on more than $40 million in Series C financing led by Bear Stearns Health Innoventures, along with backing from previously existing investors. "Due to the prohibitively high cost of the drug development process, it is common business strategy for small biotech companies to take the drug candidates through Phase I or II clinical trials, but then rely on a large pharma partner to fund the rest of the development process and ultimately the manufacturing and marketing of the product. As partners, we would share the profits in the long-term," adds Dr. Fisher. This fall, mission organizers plan to conduct two California Biotechnology Trade Missions to Germany, including the Biotechnica trade show (Hanover) this October 7-9 and the BioEurope (Frankfurt) partnering conference this November 17-19. For more information on the EU Export Initiative, go to www.exiglobal.com.

Links

• EU Export Initiative