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Biotechnology is undervalued regarding historical averages in 2 out of 3 valuation metrics. However, profitability measured in return on equity is below …

Congress, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), drug developers, researchers and patient groups have all recognized the contribution patients and caregivers can make to the drug development process. Since 2012, the FDA has incorporated the patient’s voice in disease-specific “patient-focused drug development” (PFDD) meetings to help inform the regulatory drug approval process. Who better to tell the story of how a disease manifests, or what they are experiencing on a daily basis or what side-effects are emerging from certain treatments.

Just as regulators and drug developers need and want to hear from patients, the patients, themselves, are anxious to hear about the latest developments and policies that can impact their lives. By staying informed on the latest policies, and by engaging across stakeholder groups, patient advocacy organizations serve as the voice of patients they represent, ensuring access to care and support for the pathways to effective treatment.

This October, BIO invites patient advocacy organizations to engage with the entire array of stakeholders in the drug development journey, from regulators to researchers to biopharma companies. The Patient and Health Advocacy Summit will run October 25 – 26 at the Park Hyatt hotel in Washington, DC.  During the two-day Summit, attendees can meet with other groups to learn best practices and hear from expert panelists on patient access and affordability and ways to support the discovery of new and safer treatments for pain and addiction.

This is the seventh year BIO is hosting the summit. Dean Suhr, President of the MLD Foundation has attended in the past and had this to say about the event: “The BIO Patient & Health Advocacy Summit is a very powerful intersection of pharma, biotech, and advocacy. The exchange of challenges, ideas, concerns, and opportunities at this BIO conferences is a very powerful force in refining the perspectives, thinking, and impacting future plans of those attending. The setting is modest in size allowing not just for superficial networking, rather there is time and space for in depth conversation and follow-up.”

Enhancing conference networking is BIO One-on-One Partnering™.-a unique and efficient way to schedule individual meetings with other attendees. The versatile program allows users to create profiles and send meeting requests. When the meeting is accepted, the program schedules the meeting.

Registration for the BIO Patient and Health Advocacy Summit is open.

The event is made possible through the generous contributions of our sponsors.

Champion Sponsors

Ally Sponsors

Advocate Sponsors

Sponsors as of September 6, 2018

BIO is pleased to announce the winners of the  Buzz of BIO contest, which recognizes highly innovative companies in the biotech sector. Ten pioneering biotech companies were nominated in each of three categories-Early Stage Entrepreneurs, Late Stage Leaders, and Diagnostics and Beyond. Voting closed August 30.

Locus Biosciences, a private, emerging biotechnology company, won in the Early Stage Entrepreneurs category. Locus Biosciences is developing CRISPR-engineered precision antibacterial products to address critical unmet medical needs in antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections and microbiome-related disease. Learn more about Locus Biosciences.

Garnering the most votes in the Late Stage Leaders category was Caladrius Biosciences (NASDAQ: CLBS), a clinical stage development company with cell therapy products in development based on multiple technology platforms and targeting autoimmune and select cardiology indications. The Company is investigating its lead product candidate, CLBS03, an ex vivo expanded polyclonal T regulatory cell therapy for the treatment of recent-onset type 1 diabetes in a currently enrolling Phase 2 trial. Learn more about Caladrius Biosciences.

In the category of Diagnostics and Beyond, QT Medical, a medical device startup, took home the grand prize. QT Medical aims to make high quality 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) available to everyone. QT ECG™, the first product of QT Medical, is the world’s most compact 12-lead ECG system. Focusing on innovations in the field of telemedicine and home care, QT Medical invests in research and development of products that will bring better cardiac care to patients. Learn more about QT Medical.

Congratulations to the three companies! Each will receive complimentary conference registration and a company presentation.

The  will take place October 17-18 at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco and will focus on investment opportunities for early stage and established private companies as well as emerging public companies.

Advance media registration is now available for qualified reporters working full time for print, broadcast and web publications with valid press credentials.

to learn more about the BIO Investor Forum, including registration, programming, company presentations and partnering information.

Mac Miller, 26, was found dead of an apparent overdose according to TMZ.

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Emerging technologies are disrupting the healthcare system as we know it-none more so than artificial intelligence (AI), which has a wide range of applications in the healthcare industry, ranging from medical imaging & diagnosis to therapy planning to system improvement to drug discovery.

And the healthcare AI market is booming.  Recognizing the strength of this market, the BIO Investor Forum will explore its opportunities and challenges during the annual conference in San Francisco, October 17-18. Experts in the field will explore how real-world evidence can improve clinical trials, examine “digiceuticals” as a new class of FDA-approved therapeutics, and discuss how AI can improve drug development in general.

The AI Market

Photo Credit:: Global Market Insights.

Recent analysis of the healthcare AI market illustrates that the market is about to take off like a rocket.  A report by Global Market Insights forecasts that the US healthcare AI market will exceed $10 billion by 2024.  Consequently, capital is rapidly moving to fund and develop products and systems in the AI space.

Global markets are investing in AI abroad as well.  Worldwide, nearly 80 healthcare AI startups raised their first equity rounds in 2017.  Chinese investors alone moved over $10 billion into the larger AI market in 2017, and some European firms have expressed long-term objectives for healthcare AI with the expectation to grow above $800 million by 2024.  Chinese AI start-ups are actually attracting more funding than US AI start-ups.  In 2017, Chinese companies received 48% of global AI funding compared to 38% in the US.

However, the US has established itself as the most proficient market for healthcare AI.  Leading venture capitalist Jim Breyer explained to CNBC this is the case because, “US companies simply have better data, they understand how to analyze that data, and if we’re thinking about big breakthroughs, in improving patient outcome for instance in cancer, worldwide, the US companies have, currently, a very significant lead versus the Chinese companies.”

AI’s Role in Healthcare

AI’s computing power enhances the capacity, speed and accuracy of data analytics.  With the growing volume of data in healthcare, AI can use machine learning to mine large amounts of data points from insurance claims information, comorbidities, diagnostics, procedures and prescription history to identify factors that help predict patient outcomes.  AI is also able to interpret medical imaging from CT scans and MRI scans that enhance the detection of diseases.

AI can augment the patient experience and aid physicians in more accurately diagnosing diseases.  The vision for AI in this context is that, after taking a panel of tests, the technology would read the patient’s complete EHR to predict the totality of a patient’s health risks and the likelihood of responding to a particular therapy.  This could have enormous benefits for the 30 million patients living in with rare diseases as it takes 4.8 years on average for them to receive an accurate diagnosis.

AI Transforms Drug Discovery

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of AI is that it is accelerating the use of big data to forge a new of era of drug discovery where large datasets are scrutinized to find the new generation of breakthrough treatments.

AI can mine the data to help us learn the origins of diseases and better identify the genetic basis of a variety of diseases.  AI uses machine learning and deep learning to sift through datasets to identify genetic biomarkers that indicate whether a patient will be able to respond positively to a potential treatment.  Biopharmaceutical companies may then utilize the findings to target the biomarker with a drug treatment.

One of the richest datasets for AI is a genetic database.  Across therapeutic areas, biopharmaceutical companies are making genetic databases a focus of their research and development processes.  Many of these databases are being developed by direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing companies.

Recently, the industry has seen a rise in partnerships between DTC genetic testing companies and biopharmaceutical companies to collaborate on drug discovery.  For instance, GSK recently announced a collaboration with 23andMe that involves GSK taking an equity stake in 23andMe in exchange for access to the proprietary genetic data.

The partnership will combine 23andMe’s data expertise with GSK’s clinical development expertise to utilize the genetic data to discover novel drug targets for treating diseases.  These types of partnerships may have a significant impact on some of our most complex health challenges.

Be Part of the Conversation about Healthcare AI

On October 17^th and 18^th, an international crowd of biotech investors will gather at BIO’s annual Investor Forum in San Francisco to discuss these issues.  The conference caters to emerging and established companies to discuss the cutting-edge technologies that are driving the biotechnology industry.

BIF will feature experts working at the intersection of information technology, therapy delivery, and new drug development, who can show the exponential power of machine learning and other artificial intelligence approaches to turn data into medicine.

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Brazil’s vast, fertile landscape – covering 47 percent of the South American continent – is known for its biodiversity. And thanks to a favorable regulatory landscape and abundant scientific ingenuity, the country is also quickly earning a reputation as an incubator for agricultural innovation.

In fact, of the more than 300 biotechnology startups in Brazil, nearly half are working on breakthroughs to help farmers and the consumers who depend on them.

This week, Brazil’s growing biotech footprint in the food and agriculture sector will be front and center at the 2018 BIO Latin America conference in South America’s largest city, São Paulo. The conference will bring together 500 biotech leaders from more than 20 countries to network, learn and partner with one another to promote biotechnology innovation.

Brazil has increased its life science R&D spending over the past decade. This week’s conference seeks to promote additional investment in biotechnology research to support small innovators in the region. Several Brazilian agriculture companies are on course to deliver important new technologies to feed a rapidly growing global population that is expected to reach 9 billion people in 30 years.

However, increased awareness and capital is needed to take their ideas from the lab to the commercial marketplace.

To showcase some of these emerging companies, BIO is bringing its Start-up Stadium program to BIO Latin America for the first time this year. Start-Up Stadium allows emerging companies, entrepreneurs and innovators to pitch their technology to potential investors, so they can secure feedback and funding to grow their businesses.

Also, for the first time, BIO Latin America will include ag programming to accompany panels on biopharmaceuticals and industrial biotech – with a special focus on the “Promise of Agricultural Biotechnology for a Sustainable World.”

One of the innovative companies presenting at Start-Up Stadium is LOTAN Agrosciences, which was founded in 2016 by two young Brazilian researchers from the University of São Paulo. LOTAN develops topical pesticides based on RNA interference (RNAi) – a technique used by scientists to suppress the activity of specific genes. LOTAN’s pesticide technology silences a plant’s genes without any heritable effects on the plant’s DNA. Through this technology, Brazilian farmers won’t have to worry that a plant will develop pesticide tolerance from repeated sprayings over generations.

RNAi will become increasingly critical as Brazil continues to increase cultivation and export of genetically modified crops. Currently, Brazil is second only to the United States in the production of GM crops.

YLive, another Brazilian biotech presenting at Start-Up Stadium, focuses on developing natural probiotics to increase animal productivity and improve immune health. This is crucial for an economy that ranks among the world’s largest for beef exports. Through advances in animal productivity, YLive can reduce its environmental impact by producing animal protein more sustainably.

In addition to Start-Up Stadium, BIO Latin America will host more than 2,500 business meetings through BIO’s One-on-One Partnering system. In those meetings, emerging companies in health, agriculture and industrial biotechnology will have the opportunity to seek partnerships and capital by sitting down with other innovators and investors from across Latin America.

Enterprising startups like YLive and LOTAN Agrosciences demonstrate the tremendous potential of Brazil’s burgeoning agricultural biotechnology sector. BIO Latin America provides the platform for these companies to share their products, grow their bottom lines and scale up cutting-edge technologies on a global scale to help feed a growing world.

For more information about 2018 BIO Latin America, click here.

The story could start with a farmer and a food scientist walk into a bar…or a restaurant…or a grocery store…or the Food Expo at IFT18: A Matter of Science and Food. Although they stand at opposite ends of the food chain, their topic of conversation is food - sustainability, security, waste and innovation.

GMO Answers volunteer expert and farmer Katie Pratt joined GMO Answers at their booth during the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Convention in Chicago in July. Katie and her husband, Andy, are seventh generation farmers raising farm kids, corn, soybeans, and seed corn with Andy’s family in north central Illinois.

She talked to many food scientists, nutritionists, technologists, and marketing professionals. During the show, Katie did a Facebook Live video for GMO Answers, with some initial thoughts about her conversations and engagements.

After the show, and with some time to look back and reflect on her experience, she wrote a blog post for the GMO Answers Medium page. Her main theme: Farmers, scientists and researchers have a message for you: GMOs are safe! But this message is getting muddled due to a lack in science literacy.

Her three main takeaways:

• Food scientists support science. The majority of the people who stopped at the GMO Answers booth did so to say, “Thanks for being here. We need people talking about GMOs, about science.”
• Crafting a scientific message that can be - should be - heard by their marketing counterparts is a great source of frustration for food scientists.
• The discussion of sustainability, food insecurity and food waste are everywhere! From small-town USA to the developing world, our planet is hungry and our ability to understand science affects our ability to innovate, to discover solutions to very timely problems.

Ultimately, science literacy must make a comeback in our schools, in our universities, in our daily conversations. Because when we understand the world around us, be it a field, a pasture, a laboratory or a bar, our ability to do better grows.

For more about GMOs, please visit the GMO Answers website.