OXFORD, England, April 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Europe's premier biotech conference continues to grow and see increased international participation

OBN, the not-for-profit business network which provides comprehensive support for bioscience businesses in the Oxford and South-East England biocluster and beyond, today announced the results of the sixth annual BioTrinity Biopartnering and Investment Conference. Held from April 24 - 26 at Newbury Racecourse, UK, BioTrinity is now firmly established as the largest UK bioindustry event and one of the premier events in Europe. The conference has now been Europe's fastest growing early-stage investment and partnering event for four years running.

The 2012 conference welcomed 800 delegates from over 480 companies from 26 countries across Europe, Asia and North America. 70 investment firms that specialise in funding emerging biotechnology and life science companies participated as did 20 pharmaceutical companies including all of the global top 10. This year saw more than 1925 one-to-one partnering meetings scheduled. This was up from 1,700 in 2011, continuing a growth trend from 500 meetings in 2008.

The increasing international profile of BioTrinity was highlighted by the make-up of the panel discussions with more than 60% of participants being drawn from outside the UK and from the US, Europe and Asia.

"BioTrinity continues to go from strength to strength and is now clearly one of the "must attend" events for the sector not only in the UK but in Europe and increasingly internationally," said Jon Rees, CEO, OBN. "Not only have we continued to grow but we are attracting ever more senior participants from across the industry, from regulatory and government bodies and particularly from the pharma companies eager to partner with the highly innovative companies we showcase."

Denise Goode, Executive Business Development Director, AstraZeneca, said: "BioTrinity is one of the key events on the calendar for us. We are very active in seeking high quality partners and BioTrinity offers a highly efficient and effective way of doing that. In addition to the showcased companies, the partnering system works well and the high quality of the panels adds to overall breadth of the conference."

Dina Chaya, Venture Partner, NeoMed, said: "BioTrinity offers investors a great forum to meet exciting new companies and also to network with our peers. The invitation-only investor dinner is a unique event and the quality of the panels is second to none."

About OBN

OBN is a not-for-profit business network which provides comprehensive support for its member biotech and medtech companies in the Oxford and South-East England biocluster and the rest of the UK. Our activities can be summarised as networking, partnering, group purchasing, and fundraising advice. Through its delivery of Europe's fastest growing biopartnering and investment conference, BioTrinity, OBN generates more R&D-company-to-investor interactions than anyone else in Europe. OBN is sponsored by Shire, as Corporate Patron, and Corporate Sponsors MEPC, Manches LLP, James Cowper, George James, Interea International, SRG, FOCUS Insurance, World Courier and Citigate Dewe Rogerson as well as by its extensive membership of R&D companies and other companies across the entire life sciences industry ecosystem. OBN counts more than 200 companies amongst its membership, which is growing over 40% per year.

For further information on OBN and its activities, please visit: http://www.obn.org.uk

Contacts
OBN
Jon Rees, CEO
Tel: +44(0)845-5049722
jon.rees@obn.org.uk

Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Chris Gardner/Nina Enegren        
T: +44(0)20-7638-9571
chris.gardner@citigatedr.co.uk / nina.enegren@citigatedr.co.uk

SOURCE OBN