Skip to main content
< Back to news
Regina Revilla, President of Asebio and Carmen Vela, Spanish Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation (Foto: EBD Group).
 23.11.2015

Biolatam, a benchmark meeting in the series of biotechnology summits worldwide

On 16 and 17 November Santiago de Xile hosted the last edition of the largest biotechnology partnering conference in Latin-America, Biolatam 2015.The event, produced by EBD Group and ASEBIO in collaboration with ProChile and Chile Biotech, was attended by over 340 life science dealmakers from pharma, biotech and service companies representing US, Latin American and European entities.organized by the Spanish Association of Biocompanies  (Asebio), EBD Group and Chilean biotechnology companies (Asembio), with the support of ProChile and the Chilebiotech cluster. Leitat, its Biomed Division – which has located its Biomedical Division at PCB– is one of the 30 companies from the Spanish state that took part in this global partnering forum which ranks high in a relevant place in biotechnology summits worlwide.

 

This year, thanks to the collaboration of Asebio and EBD Group, Biolatam was presented with a more professional partnership format, with themes adapted to the Latin-American biotech market. The participants were able to access a one-to-one meetings module, managed with the PartneringOne software package from EBD Group, and a series of conferences on bioeconomy and biofuels, advanced therapies, food biotechnology, personalized medicine, health products and capital risk, among others.

We have received many congratulations for this event, with a great interest of all participants, confirming the success of Biolatam as Latin America’s leading biotechnology event,” said Regina Revilla, President of Asebio. “The entire team has worked hand in hand to ensure that the expectations of the 250 companies present from more than 20 countries (30 organizations from Spain) and more than 300 attendees were fully met. We are facing the challenge of biotechnology globalization. Many ties bind us to the two continents, and this is the reason Asebio decided to extend his project to Latin America two years ago with transpired in the first edition of Biolatam held in Bogota (Colombia) in 2013.”

According to Anna Chrisman, Group Managing Director, EBD Group: “We are pleased by the success of this second edition of Biolatam. The energy was palpable, and innumerable connections were made to propel the market, both through partnering and through networking in the exhibition and evening event. Latin America is definitely a thriving emerging market that is only expected to grow.”

Parallel sessions and debate forums

One of the most important sessions held in this event is the roundtable “How Biomedical innovation is changing the pharma paradigm”, which has shown the importance of R&D+I  development in biohealthcare for the discovery of new drugs and to provide solutions to unmet medical needs. Other events of interest included the workshop “Biotechnology as a tool for improvement and developments in the food industry; which has featured the attendance of a renowned Spanish businessman and researcher, Daniel Ramón, CEO of Biopolis. Of note was also the session “Creating innovation and entrepreneurship in biotechnology ecosystems for internationalization”, which featured a presentation by Joe Panetta, chairperson and CEO of Biocom. And the discussion panel Biosimilars, coordinated by the company mAbxience –which just inaugurated in Spain the first biosimilars plant in Europe–that offered a special space dedicated to the situation of this products in Latin American and the existing development process of a biosimilar, taking Rituximan, as an example.

The event also included a workshop on Bioeconomia with a representative from IUCT Inkemia, leading company in industrial biotechnology. In addition, some other areas were covered most notably the area of diagnosis, patents, Latin-American bioclusters, aquaculture and animal health and biodiversity throughout Latin America. 

 

Promoting scientific and business relations at the Ibeoroamerican space

Biolatam is a platform for business development in the biotech sector and its users (pharma, diagnostics, food, energy) with its focus on Latin America. The goal of Biolatam is to consolidate scientific and business trade relations in Latin America thanks to the joint work of the Spanish biotech company and the biotechnology cluster of the country in which the event is held.

At the first edition held in 2013 in Bogota (Colombia), the summit brought together attendees from 29 different countries, 17 international investors and nearly 900 bilateral meetings.

The third edition of Biolatam will take place in San Juan (Puerto Rico) November 29–30, 2016.

 

Biolatam 2015 on Twitter: @BIOLATAM i @EBDGroup (hashtag: #BLT15)