San Francisco’s
Moscone
Center
on June 7-9.
During
the conference, the Partnership and
the Park joined more than 1,400
other exhibiters at the world’s
largest biotechnology conference and
tradeshow to promote the area’s
numerous business advantages and the
brand “Greater Richmond, Virginia:
The New East Coast Center for
Biosciences.”
Local
economic development representatives
from Greater Richmond included Ben
Armbruster, Commercial Development
Coordinator with the City of Richmond;
Faith McClintic, Assistant Director
for Chesterfield
County;
Marc Weiss, Director for Hanover
County;
Toney Hall, Director of Marketing
with Henrico
County;
and Renee Robins, Vice President of
Business Development for the Greater
Richmond Partnership, Inc.
The
Park and Partnership’s combined
booth was located in the Virginia
Pavilion, which was hosted by the
Virginia Economic Development
Partnership. In addition to Greater
Richmond’s presence, the pavilion
included representative
organizations, state universities,
economic development groups, and
biotech companies from throughout
the state including Commonwealth
Biotechnologies of Richmond and
Arkios Biodevelopment International
of Virginia Beach.
More than 900 speakers shared their expertise in 192
program sessions covering every
aspect of biotechnology from drug
discovery to clinical research,
biodefense, intellectual property,
and doing business globally.
G.
Steven Burrill, industry visionary
and CEO of Burrill & Company, a
San Francisco-based life sciences
merchant bank, reported that though
the market has been choppy, the
biotech industry has already raised
$13 billion in funds in 2004 and
close to $29 billion since the BIO
2003 convention in Washington
,
D.C.
Since October 2003,
twenty-five new biotech companies
have entered the market and raised
more than $1.5 billion and there are
16 additional IPO deals currently on
file.
Burrill’s
outlook for 2004 included more
positive news as he projected that
biotech stocks will outperform both
the DJIA and NASDAQ during the
second half of the year; big pharma
will continue to buy biotech;
attitudes toward genetically
modified crops will continue to
soften in Europe and elsewhere,
resulting in an uptake of
genetically modified crops,
especially in developing countries;
and nutraceuticals will remain a
strong segment of the biotech market
as the U.S. continues to address
obesity, diabetes, and heart
disease.
The
Virginia
delegation hosted a Virginia
wine reception in the exhibit hall
on the second and busiest day of the
conference. The Greater Richmond
delegation met with hundreds of
attendees during the three-day
event.
More than 100 quality leads
were captured for future marketing
follow up, including prospective
companies, venture capitalists, and
other bioscience-related contacts.
