UPPSALA, Sweden, June 17, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- The future is expected to open doors to new biotech applications, including creating structures the size of molecules and sub-cellular particles. A session at BIO2003 will present a panel of leading European scientists discussing the opportunities and challenges revealed by these new nano-machines and nano-tools for analysis of single molecules. This new wave of technology, including nano-tubes, nano-containers and novel approaches in drug targeting are areas were several Swedish and Swiss scientists in academic research and in companies are active. The Nanotechnology session is chaired by Associate Professor Magnus Malmqvist, Senior Partner in Bioventia.
Bioventia Life Science Consultants have actively supported the planning of the Nanobiotechnology session at BIO2003, together with other groups who take part in nanobiotechnology and nanochemistry science in Sweden, including VINNOVA and AstraZeneca. "We are pleased to be able to participate in this outstanding panel at BIO2003," says Magnus Malmqvist, Senior Partner and CSO in Bioventia. "The past years we have already seen several companies emerge in Sweden, based on applications from nanobiotechnology science, including Cellectricon, who raised (Eur) 5 million venture capital in 2002, and Gnothis, based in Stockholm and Lausanne."
Associate Professor Hans Hultberg, Head of Global Discovery Alliances in AstraZeneca, is also a Member of the Board of the Swedish Nanochemistry Programme, appointed by the Royal Institute of Technology and the Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF). "It is likely that nanochemistry and nanotechnology will revolutionize many areas of chemistry and biology, and this is of great strategic importance. In the first instance, the goals are focused around the future needs in pharmaceutical chemistry and clinical diagnostics, where paradigm shifts are close," Hultberg comments.
"For Bioventia, the involvement at BIO2003 is another evidence of our increasing international activities together with biotech start-up companies," says Lena Lebel, CEO at Bioventia. "We believe that the expansion of our international network is a natural and necessary step to provide the best service for our clients. Participating in the Swedish pavilion and Partnering Forum will provide great opportunities to meet potential alliance partners and investors for the companies Bioventia work with."
About the Nanotechnology session at BIO2003
The BIO2003 session is titled: Nanotechnology - A New Wave or Just Smaller? and held on Wednesday June 25th at 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM in Room: 209
More information at: http://www.bio.org/events/2003/speaker/session2.asp?tid=20
Session chair is Magnus Malmqvist, Senior Partner and Associate Professor, Bioventia and Uppsala University.
Speakers include: Lars Edman, scientific co-founder and CEO of Gnothis, Lausanne and Stockholm Christoph Gerber, Ph.D., Director, Scientific Communication, NCCR National Center of Competence for Nanoscience Institute of Physics, University of Basel, and Nanoscale Science Group, IBM Research Lab, Rueschlikon Ueli Aebi, Ph.D., National Center of Competence in Research, Nanoscale Science, M.E. Mueller Institute for Structural Biology, Biozentrum, University of Basel
About Bioventia
Bioventia is a management consulting company, acting as a link between innovations, financing and competent management. Bioventia builds on broad international experience from research, development, marketing and business development, within pharmaceutical, diagnostic and biotech industry. The consultants from Bioventia become true working partners for the needs of life science companies, in areas like business and market analysis, development of strategies, business plans, and customer alliances, as well as for specialist competences in quality aspects, product and clinical development. Clients include Amersham Biosciences, AstraZeneca, Gyros Microlabs, BioInvent International, Karolinska Innovation, Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, Swedish Trade Council and VINNOVA. Bioventia has a network of international resources in countries including USA, Germany, France, Israel and Finland. Meet Bioventia in the booth at BIO 2003, located at the Swedish Pavilion, number 835. More information at www.bioventia.com
About BIO2003
BIO2003 is the BioIndustry Organisation's annual convention, held June 22-25 in Washington, DC. The event has grown tenfold since BIO's inception in 1993, and with 47 percent just in the last two years. This year, for the tenth anniversary convention, between 15,000 and 20,000 biotechnology executives, politicians, scientists, and reporters are expected to come to meet. The convention has not only grown larger, it's become truly global in scope. At BIO 2002 in Toronto, 52 countries were represented, and for the first time ever, U.S. registrants were a minority. More information at www.bio.org
For more information, contact: Lena Lebel, CEO Bioventia, Mobile phone: +46705866348, Lena.lebel@bioventia.com
Magnus Malmqvist, CSO Bioventia Mobile phone: +46709147995, Magnus.malmqvist@bioventia.com