Press Release

München, Bavaria ( connect2business.co.uk ) June 7, 2013 - BioVaria, Europe's leading marketplace for life-science inventions held on 4 June in Munich, attracted numerous decision makers from industry and venture capital looking for cutting-edge academic projects that could fit their portfolios. This year, technology transfer professionals and scientists representing 24 research institutes and universities in 14 European countries presented 40 commercial opportunities. These ranged from potential therapeutics and diagnostics to platform technologies. In addition, business developers from Bayer Pharma, Novo Nordisk, MSD and Boehringer Ingelheim presented their inlicensing needs. Altogether, about 170 delegates attended.

'I very much recommend this event to every external innovation scout in the biopharmaceutical industry who is responsible for inlicensing early-stage projects. Nowhere else can you find such a density of high-quality offers and meet scientists and technology transfer professionals from all over Europe,' said Dr Marcus Kostka, Director Research Networking at Boehringer Ingelheim.

This year also saw a Spin-off Panel featuring six selected start-ups. Based on brief introductory statements and a challenging question time, a jury of seasoned life-science managers selected the most convincing candidate. This year's winner of the BioVaria Spin-off Award is NdL, a start-up developing unique therapeutic nanoparticles for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The second prize went to MetaHeps, a Munich-based start-up offering dedicated services for evaluating the potential toxic effects of new medicines on liver tissue and function.

'The panel format is extremely effective in forcing the candidates to be very concise and clear. This enables potential investors to gain a very good overview of all the spin-offs in just one hour', said the Panel's moderator Jörn Fingerhuth, Partner at Pinsent Masons.

Christian Stein, CEO of Ascenion, adds: 'We are extremely pleased about the strong and ongoing endorsement BioVaria receives from industry, venture capital, technology transfer and academia. Together with our partners, we will now evaluate different options for extending this successful concept to further disciplines, in particular to medical technologies."

The next BioVaria will take place on 6 May 2014 in Munich. Register at www.biovaria.org to receive news about the upcoming event.

All technologies and spin-offs presented during BioVaria 2013 are available online at www.biovaria.org.

Contact

Dr Susanne Letzelter, Corporate Development & Communication, Ascenion GmbH
T: +49 (0)89 318814-16
F: +49 (0)89 318814-20
letzelter@ascenion.de

About BioVaria

BioVaria brings together Europe's top scientists and technology transfer professionals with potential licensees and investors from the international biopharmaceutical industry.

Key features of BioVaria 2013:

- Presentation of top licensable technologies and spin-offs originating from a broad range of research institutions and universities across Europe.

- Focus on patent-protected, commercially attractive opportunities covering research tools, diagnostics and therapeutics

- Interactive, efficient one-day format

- Ample space to discuss scientific details face-to-face with the inventors.

Patron:

Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology

Sponsors:

BioM, Bayer HealthCare, Boehringer Ingelheim, MSD, Novo Nordisk, HERTIN, Sanofi, Vossius & Partner, Pinsent Masons, Bayern Kapital

Technology transfer partners:

Ascenion, Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft, Bayerische Patentallianz, BTO Bergen Teknologioverføring, EMBLEM Technology Transfer, FIST, Inven2, Lead Discovery Center, Max Planck Innovation, MRC Technology, National Genome Research Network, PROvendis

Communication supporters:

ASTP, BioDeutschland, GoingPublic, iptechex, KONOCOM, transkript

About Ascenion

Ascenion GmbH is an IP asset management company with particular expertise in the life sciences. Ascenion advises and supports public research institutions with regard to the protection and exploitation of their intellectual property, and initiates and mediates license agreements between research institutions and industry. The company places particular emphasis on coaching company founders and on active equity management. Ascenion currently markets around 750 technologies on behalf of its 24 institutions.

Further information at www.ascenion.de

###

Ascenion GmbH is an IP asset management company with particular expertise in the life sciences. Ascenion advises and supports public research institutions with regard to the protection and exploitation of their intellectual property, and initiates and mediates license agreements between research institutions and industry.

Organisation Profile:
Ascenion GmbH is an IP asset management company with particular expertise in the life sciences. Ascenion advises and supports public research institutions with regard to the protection and exploitation of their intellectual property, and initiates and mediates license agreements between research institutions and industry.