Attendance at last week's Biotechnology Industry Organization's annual meeting in Atlanta dropped by 30% or more from the more than 20,000-level seen at the 2008 meeting in San Diego. BIO stated that 14,352 attendees from 58 countries and 48 states were at the 4-day show.
"In this challenging economy, it's more important than ever to be able to meet face-to-face with potential customers and partners," said Andrew Reaume, CEO/President of Melior Discovery, a small biotech exhibitor.
The credit crunch, shifting VC monies, reduced R&D budgets, and biotech layoffs--10,000 over the past two years--have worried some firms. However, industry leaders representing more than 1,800 companies still participated in more than 14,000 one-on-one partner meetings at the show. Additionally, 190 companies presented as part of the BIO Business Forum. It's likely that at least some of those meetings concerned possible mergers, acquisitions, or partnerships, since the current business climate makes some biotech properties more attractive now than in recent years.
The full convention program featured more than 170 technical sessions in 22 breakout session tracks, including tracks on drug delivery, global biotech, translational medicine, and vaccines.
BIO 2010 will be held in Chicago on May 3-6, 2010.
Source: BIO2009
