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November 25^th & 26^th, 2025
14^th edition

STRASBOURG, FR

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About
Participants
Partnering
Exhibition
Pitches
Conferences
Hosted Events
Registration
General information

2020 Conference Programme

Home » 2020 Conference Programme

The BioFIT 2020 conference programme is tailored to match the interests of every player of the sector and fit the expectations of its stakeholders, whose sharp minds operate in the fast-paced Life Sciences sector. Built this year around 8 sessions, the 2020 programme is rooted in four custom-made tracks, addressing the right funding sources for early-stage innovation, best practices in academia-industry R&D collaborations, winning ways to nurture emerging assets and animal health highlights.

All BioFIT’s attendees will have access to a mix of live and on-demand content during those 4 days. This content will be available for 30 days afterwards. They will also have the opportunity to debate with the speakers via interactive online chats.

Plenary Session

Track 1

Track 2

Track 3

Animal Health Highlights

Plenary Session

Plenary Session

DAY 1 – Monday, December 7th

11:00 AM
12:30 PM

Successful early-stage innovation deals: Pharma and biotech partners divulge specifics

What are pharma companies awaiting from the start-ups they would like to interact with?
Learn from success stories of pharma-biotech collaborations through successful deals they made. What were the hurdles to these deals? What are the keys to carry a good partnership? What are the factors of success and how to handle them? When is it the best time to go meet with pharma for a biotech start-up?

Learn from figures and statistics: how many people get a deal at the end? How to picture an innovation in the best possible way to make a deal? How interactions between early-stage projects and pharma help anticipate pitfalls at the very early development stages? How innovative products have proven to come out of these deals?

This session advocates that a problem shared is a problem solved.

Luc Boblet, Founder and CEO, Egle Therapeutics
Phil L’Huillier, Head of Business Development, Europe, MSD
Jochen Maas, General Manager R&D Germany, Sanofi
Shane Maloney, Global Head of Transactions, Servier
Loic Lhuillier, Chief Operating Officer, Exonate Ltd

Track 1

TRACK 1: BEST PRACTICES IN ACADEMIA-INDUSTRY R&D COLLABORATIONS

DAY 2 – Tuesday, December 8th

5:00 PM
6:15 PM

A toolbox session is designed to provide practical skills, easy-to-follow guidelines and take-home tools which delegates can put into practice to deal with their current issues.

Toolbox session

How to differentiate as a potential partner on the crowded oncology playfield?

Differentiation is key for a biotech start-up or an academic asset to be noticed and stand-up on the busy field of oncology. Similarly, spotting ideal partnership candidates for pharma proves increasingly difficult. How to take R&D to partnership with pharma? What is the recipe for a successful partnership in a packed sector? How to anticipate the hurdles of sailing an overloaded boat?

Tobias Silberzahn, Partner, McKinsey & Company
Pierre-Michel Bringer, Investor Relations Officer, Novartis
Therese Liechtenstein, Principal, M Ventures
Michael Salako, Senior Investment Associate // New Ventures and Transactions Executive, Start Codon // Cancer Research UK

DAY 4 – Thursday, December 10th

4:00 PM
5:30 PM

Moderated roundtable discussion consisting in an exchange of ideas and perspectives by international experts to delve into the latest challenges of the sector.

Panel discussion

How has the 2020/COVID-19 global health crisis led to unprecedented public-private partnerships?

COVID-19 outbreak has shaken the world and the entire life sciences industry has been committed to bring solutions forward in the fight against the pandemic. How have private and public players been joining forces to facilitate research and development? How have pharma, biotech start-ups, medtech companies, academia and public health agencies concretely been working together on diagnostic, treatments, clinical repurposing, and preventive vaccines? What can be taken away from the experimental partnerships and collaborations that have emerged in this global health crisis context?

Rafaela Kunz, Open Innovation Consultant, Biotechnologist & IP Expert, InseaConsulting
Vassilis Georgiadis, Principal, Partnerships (Pharma & Healthcare), UCL Innovation and Enterprise
Pierre Meulien, Executive Director, Innovative Medicines Initiative
Rob Smeets, EU Programme Manager, Philips
Reyk Horland, CEO, TissUse

Track 2

TRACK 2: NURTURING AND LICENSING EARLY-STAGE ASSETS

DAY 2 – Tuesday, December 8th

2:00 PM
3:00 PM

A toolbox session is designed to provide practical skills, easy-to-follow guidelines and take-home tools which delegates can put into practice to deal with their current issues.

Toolbox session

How is having a solid IP strategy crucial and how to design one?

IP is a critical point: how to secure your assets? A good strategy makes a whole lot of a difference, how is the necessity to have a strong IP strategy crucial in the new context of AI? What does “strong strategy” mean? What are good examples of successful strategies? What are the options?

Anne-Charlotte Le Bihan, Partner, Bird & Bird
Christian Schwarz, CEO, Numaferm
Iraida Soria Espinosa, Licensing & Ventures Manager, Oxford University Innovation
Jürgen Walkenhorst, Managing Director, Life Science Nord

DAY 3 – Wednesday, December 9th

3:30 PM
4:30 PM

Moderated roundtable discussion consisting in an exchange of ideas and perspectives by international experts to delve into the latest challenges of the sector.

Panel discussion

Understanding the European R&D transaction scene: 2020 tendencies and 2021 expectations

Gain insight on the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on transaction volumes and valuations. How has this affected investment in venture creation? How effective is virtual deal making? Over the last few years deals are being done at much earlier stages – what does this mean for valuations and how is risk being managed through deal structuring? As 2021 is in a few short weeks, panellists will share their expectations for deal making in the New Year.

Jill Ogden, Principal, Medius Associates
Jonas Jendi, Investment Manager, Industrifonden
Pavithra Sundaresan, Senior Director New Ventures and Transactions, J&J Innovation
Paul Van Der Horst, Head of Corporate Development, Galapagos
Cécile Henrich-Burkhardt, Senior Licensing Specialist, Office for Research and Innovation, Technische Universität München

Track 3

TRACK 3: FROM PRE-SEED TO SERIES A: ACCESSING EARLY-STAGE INVESTMENT

DAY 1 – Monday, December 7th

9:00 AM
10:30 AM

Moderated roundtable discussion consisting in an exchange of ideas and perspectives by international experts to delve into the latest challenges of the sector.

Panel discussion

Investor pitch & tips: What are early-stage investors looking for in the COVID-19 aftermaths?

10 minutes investor’s pitch. Each investor talks 5 minutes about what they are looking for and then take the questions from the audience. The goal is to help identifying the right investor for the right project.
The pitches will be followed by a 30-minute moderated discussion to gather the investor panel insights on how to raise and secure funds in the current context. How has COVID-19 pandemic influenced investors and what is the impact on early-stage pattern of investment? To what extent is the early-stage investment in Biotech and Medtech affected? What are the opportunities to beat the funding odds during COVID-19?

The panel will feature feedback from early-stage investors, discussing key figures and recent experiences as well as guidance for start-ups dealing with this additional funding challenge.

Irene Fialka, CEO, INiTS
Sascha Berger, Partner, TVM Capital
Rodrigo Mallo Leiva, Partner, IndieBio – SOSV
Bert-Arjan Millenaar, Founder & CEO, NLC
Michèle Ollier, Co-Founder and Partner, Medicxi Ventures

DAY 4 – Thursday, December 10th

9:00 AM
10:30 AM

A toolbox session is designed to provide practical skills, easy-to-follow guidelines and take-home tools which delegates can put into practice to deal with their current issues.

Toolbox session

How to valorise a technology platform?

How to get it financed? Which milestones to be reached to turn a technology platform into a valuable company? What are the VCs expectations? What is the way to maturity of this assets to become a financeable company?

Laurie Rey, Director, Business, Toulouse White Biotechnology
Tony Cheng-Fu Chang, Senior Business Developer, BioInnovation Institute
Peter Hamley, Chief Scientific Officer, Samsara Therapeutics
Michael Thompson, Co-founder and CEO, DyNAbind
Edward van Wezel, Managing Partner, BioGeneration Ventures

Animal Health Highlights

ANIMAL HEALTH HIGHLIGHTS

DAY 2 – Tuesday, December 8th

11:00 PM
12:00 PM

Moderated roundtable discussion consisting in an exchange of ideas and perspectives by international experts to delve into the latest challenges of the sector.

Panel discussion

Developing diagnostic and vaccines for emerging zoonosis

Financial considerations are often a major barrier to successful vaccine development, yet vaccination remains the most effective tools in the fight to help protect animals and livestock from countless new and emerging diseases. In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, what are the innovative ways to address the challenge of preventing epidemics? How can One health concept contribute to deeper collaboration and pooled funding in vaccinology? What are the latest breakthrough technologies for future vaccine development? What is the role of diagnostic tools and what about their implementation?

John Hodgson, Managing Director, Communication, LifeSci Advisors
Ralf Amann, CEO, Prime Vector Technologies
Muriel Vayssier – Taussat, Head of Animal Health Department, Inrae
Serge Leterme, Vice President, Innovation, Regulatory & Public Affairs, IDEXX Livestock, Poultry and Dairy

Continue your tour

REGISTRATION FOR BIOFIT

WHO WILL YOU MEET?

2022 CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

Contact

Eline Delcroix

Conference Programme Manager

edelcroix@eurasante.com

+33 (0) 978 315 544

With more than 1,000 international actors from 35+ countries, such as big pharma, emerging and small biotech, diagnostic companies, pre-seed / seed / Series A investors, as well as professionals from tech transfer, academia and research institutions, BioFIT is the leading partnering event in Europe for technology transfer, academia-industry collaborations and early-stage innovation deals in the field of Life Sciences. BioFIT is also the European marketplace for pre-seed, seed and Series A investment rounds in Life Sciences.
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Palais de la Musique et des Congrès
Place de Bordeaux
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