Registration is now open for the ever-popular IPLS pre-CPHI networking drinks reception - take advantage of the early bird rate and register now!

Discover the Real Impact of AI in Biopharma! Join us for the 'AI Transforming BioPharma Panel: Beyond the Hype' at the hashtag#Sachs_BEF on September 25th, 2024, at the Mövenpick Hotel Basel. Explore the genuine advancements and practical applications of artificial intelligence that are revolutionizing biopharmaceuticals.

Chaired by:
Sarah Holland, President of Swiss HLG & CBO, Cureteq AG - a Partex Company
Panellists:
Frank Grams, Chief Commercial Officer, Partex N.V.
Katharina Kreymborg, SVP (CSO Partner Team), Curie.Bio
Parker Moss, EVP Corporate Development, Exscientia Ltd.
Patrick Schwab, Senior Director, AI & Machine Learning, GSK
Ricardo Gaminha Pacheco, Strategic Partnering, Business Development & Licensing Director, Insilico Medicine

This panel will cut through the noise to examine how AI technologies are truly transforming drug discovery, development, and market strategies. Engage with industry experts as they discuss overcoming challenges, achieving breakthroughs, and forecasting the future of AI in biopharma.

Don’t miss this opportunity to gain in-depth insights and network with pioneers in the field. Secure your spot today at www.sachsforum.com/24bef and join us, both hashtag#InPerson & hashtag#Online, during the Sachs Autumn Life Sciences Week.

Stay Ahead in Bio-Pharma Dealmaking! Join us for the 'Latest Trends in Dealmaking for Bio-Pharma Panel' at the hashtag#Sachs_BEF on September 26th, 2024, at the Mövenpick Hotel Basel. Discover the strategies driving successful partnerships and transactions in the biopharmaceutical sector.

Co-Chaired by:
Sandra von Meier, Head Business Development & Licensing, Debiopharm International S.A.
Sarah Holland, President of Swiss HLG & CBO, Cureteq AG - a Partex Company

Panellists:
Alessandra Polara, Senior Director, Global BD, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG
Berthold Hinzen, Global Head BD&L Transactions Immunology, Novartis AG
Jeremy Griggs, Executive Director, Business Development, GSK
Richard Ward, Executive Director, Search & Evaluation, AstraZeneca

This panel offers a deep dive into the evolving landscape of dealmaking in the biopharma industry. Learn from top executives and dealmakers as they explore the latest trends, strategies, and challenges in mergers, acquisitions, and strategic partnerships. Gain insights into how these dynamics are shaping the industry and what it means for future innovation and growth.

Don’t miss this chance to enhance your strategic decision-making and networking capabilities. Secure your spot today at www.sachsforum.com/24bef and join us, both hashtag#inperson & hashtag#online, during the Sachs Autumn Life Sciences Week.

The Swiss HLG 23rd annual conference will be held on 25th - 27th May 2025 once again at the historic Belle Epoque Grand Hotel Suisse Majestic in the beautiful scenic location of Montreux, Switzerland.

We held the second Swiss HLG Start-Up Initiative workshop on June 12, kindly hosted by Johnson & Johnson at their new campus in Allschwil.

This initiative is a collaboration between Swiss HLG, BaseLaunch and Johnson & Johnson and aims to help 30 great biotech start-ups get Fit for Partnering through a series of four linked workshops.

At the June workshop nine brave start-ups pitched to an expert jury, including Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Roche, Pureos Bioventures and Forty51 Ventures. We are enormously grateful for the thoughtful insights provided by Anthony Gemmell, Markus Werner, Alessandra Polara, Ying Wang, Anne Grahl and Sara Núñez-Garcia, PhD, MBA. And big thanks to our Board member Michael R Huebner for being a fantastic organiser and host.

The quality of the pitches was impressive and we would like to thank the wonderful start-ups for pitching:
- Amporin Pharmaceuticals
- Antion Biosciences SA
- Ariya Bio
- Barrier Therapeutics
- T-Oncology AG
- ILONOV
- MT-act
- Selmod
- FatiAbGen Inc.

It was a fantastic event with a great atmosphere and we are keenly looking forward to the next workshop in September, which will dive into partnering and term sheet negotiations.

It was a great honour to have Christian Mauriand, MBA, Global Head of Development at Roivant Sciences speaking at our recent conference in Montreux on ¨How to build a multi-billion dollar biotech through partnering, an introduction to Roivant Sciences¨.

Christian described how Roivant was built entirely through dealmaking into a commercial stage company with over $8bio market cap, 900 employees, 6 late stage studies ongoing and which has delivered 6 FDA approvals and 10 consecutive positive Phase 3 studies. Wow!

Some of the key principles behind this very impressive track record include that smaller, therapy area focused organisations (¨vants¨) are best, it's helpful to align incentives (e.g. giving executives equity in ¨vants¨), a rigorous focus on value, recruiting top talent from within and beyond biopharma, and deploying data and technology in all business areas.

Christian described how Roivant was able to achieve rapid operational acceleration and to share infrastructure and learnings as well as data and tech to deliver successful Phase 3 studies faster and at lower cost than rivals. Having a stable majority shareholder investing through the balance sheet also helped.

Roivant is therapy area agnostic and very independent in its thinking, looking the other way to the pack. Dealmaking involves rigorous scrutiny and always includes a thesis on why not to do a deal as well as on why to do it. Roivant takes a proactive interest in specific fields and targets and watches certain programs - always a sign of excellent dealmaking.

In particular, Roivant had liked the TL1A target for some time and Pfizer's program in particular, but it always seemed core to their pipeline. When Pfizer acquired Arena with another program in a similar area, Roivant quickly realised that the whole context for outlicensing had changed and swooped in with a creative solution. Impressed by how quickly Roivant could move the program vs the competition in inflammatory bowel diseases, Roche then acquired Telavant for $7bio. A perfect example of how consummate dealmaking can unlock the potential of stalled assets for the benefit of patients.

We are very grateful to Christian for sharing such valuable insights on Roivant's inspiring and amazing journey. If you sadly missed his talk at our conference, he will give a reprise at the International Partnering in Lifescience Society (IPLS) conference in Malaga on September 16th-18th.

Please save the date for our 2025 conference - May 25th-27th back in beautiful Montreux!

It was very inspiring to have Matthias Steger PhD, MBA, CEO of Endogena Therapeutics, Inc. speaking at our recent conference in Montreux on ¨Endogena Therapeutics – a novel drug discovery & development paradigm¨.

Mats described how starting in 2016 he built a unique phenotypic drug discovery platform from scratch, focused on using AI and machine learning to find novel small molecules that restore stem cell function. Over 7 years later, Endogena now has two clinical programs in opthalmology and Mats argues that a phenotypic approach can deliver higher translational success. Agents can also offer wider applicability than therapies targeting specific genetic deficits.

Mats faced a lot of scepticism and had to address every proof point sequentially. Initially peopole did not believe that retinal stem cells were present, then that they could be activated, and then that they would migrate to where they were needed. Careful diligent experiments dismantled each of the objections in turn, gradually unlocking further funding and partnering interest. All of this has resulted in groundbreaking publications.

It was very moving to hear how Mats was motivated on his journey by a friend facing blindness from retinitis pigmentosa. We wish Mats every success in this amazing journey. https://endogena.com/

Please look out for the ¨save the date¨ announcement for our 2025 conference!

It was a great honour to have Michael Chiusolo, Executive Director & Commercial Women's Health Portfolio Lead at Organon speaking at our recent conference in Montreux on ¨Empowering women’s health: Creating a winning business strategy¨.

Organon spun out of Merck & Co in June 2021 with the women’s health, established brands and biosimilars portfolios. The women’s health business started with no development pipeline and therefore business development was essential to build the franchise. Michael shared valuable insights based on nearly 10 subsequent transactions. The guidance was to invest effort in crafting a very well thought through and detailed strategy, ensuring full alignment of stakeholders across functions. It's important to pursue a deliberate, disciplined strategy, but if an opportunistic deal perfectly fits your footprint then to look at it seriously – ¨80% strategy, 20% opportunism¨. It helps to be crystal clear on what you can’t do to save wasted effort, e.g. due diligence on software offerings. While being laser focused on strategy, it’s important to be flexible on execution, and open to a variety of deal structures. Opportunism can be used to evolve strategy over time.