11 April 2003

Northbank Communications helps raise profile of the biotechnology industry in the Benelux countries

The biotech industry in Belgium and the Netherlands attracts revenues of about €2.2 billion and its 150 or so companies are having to rely on venture capital for expansion while the capital markets are closed. Northbank's corporate PR team handled the press relations for the first largescale BioCapital Europe conference held in Amsterdam on 8 April, which brought Benelux biotechs and investors together. The conference was flagged up on several key websites and journal listings and through the members of the Dutch and Belgian bio trade associations. Apart from local press, the key European biotech media were unable to attend; Northbank produced a conference report circulated to key media after the event, all of whom were telephoned personally. As this conference gets some recognition and becomes more established in the biotech calendar we expect to be hearing more about Benelux biotech companies in the future.

Benelux Countries Seek Funds For Continued Growth

Amsterdam 11th April 2003: The biotechnology industry in the Benelux countries, Belgium and the Netherlands, is flourishing and has excellent scientific credentials but it has a limited supply of venture capital, according to Fritz van der Have of Life Sciences Partners (LSP). In a relatively young sector, many companies are coming up against closed capital markets at a point when they need to raise capital to further their research and development programmes. To help the Benelux sector achieve its next growth spurt, Dutch biotech venture fund LSP and Holland's Fortis Bank, investment bankers to the sector, this week (8 April 2003) held the first BioCapital Europe conference in Amsterdam to bring venture funds and biotechs together.

The Benelux biotech industry is primarily focused on developing new drugs and providing research tools to big pharma but it also has an agrifood sector which is improving crop yields and developing nutriceuticals. About a third of Holland's life science companies have an agbio interest.

30 biotech companies, predominantly from Belgium and The Netherlands, presented to BioCapital Europe's invited audience of about 120 venture capitalists, institutions and biotech and pharmaceutical industrialists. Corporate venture capital companies such as Johnson and Johnson's JJDC and Novo Nordisk's Novo A/S, which provides another source of finance, explained their investment criteria as against that of a venture capitalist.

The scientific diversity of the companies was impressive in such a relatively small sample from the two countries. Benelux has already grown some publicly listed, established players like Innogenetics, Belgium's oldest biotech company founded in 1985, with several major partnerships with big pharma and a drug for Hepatitis C in Phase II clinical trials. Euroscreen, still a private company but with 80 employees, has identified 10 drug targets and licensed one to Pfizer. Dutch company, Crucell, has a partnership with the prestigious US National Institutes of Health to develop a first vaccine for the fatal wasting disease, Ebola.

At the other end of the scale, 4AZA of Belgium, although only formed in 2002 benefits from 45 years of its founder's research into immune disease; from Holland, and slightly older at six years, chemical and biological screening company Kiadis, is in the process of merging with complementary bioinformatics company BioFrontera AG, to strengthen its offering to big pharma. Belgium's Ablynx, started in 2001, is developing a new class of molecule: single domain antibodies that are 10 times smaller than a regular antibody but more stable and as effective and with the cell penetration capability of small chemicals.

A particular area of interest is the use to which nanotechnology is being put in the creation of bioMEMS, being used now as diagnostic tools and likely to be developed as ‘smart pills' which could for example detect blood sugar levels in diabetics and administer insulin when needed. Dutch company, Applied Nanosystems is developing liposomal based cancer drugs incorporating novel nano channels which greatly improve control over the delivery of the otherwise rather leaky liposomes.

In the space of about 12 years the number of specialist biotechnology companies in the Benelux has grown to about 150. In the Netherlands, 45 have started since 2000; within the EU, Belgium has the highest proportion of employees per capita in the sector. The combined biotech revenues of the two countries has passed the E 2 billion mark (E2.2bn 2000/01) which compares favourably with the latest estimates for the UK of E 3bn.

"The two countries have the academic excellence, government and pharma industry support to now attract serious venture and institutional investment, which is why we teamed with investment bank Fortis to run this first major investment conference for the biotechnology industry in the Benelux Countries." said Fritz van der Have of LSP. Fortis ranks in the top 20 European financial institutions and has four dedicated biotech teams of analysts and advisers in Amsterdam, Paris, New York and Boston. LSP also has a base in Germany.

Christopher S Henney, executive chairman of Dendreon Corporation and co-founder of Immunex, in the keynote address of the conference, stressed that one of the essentials for success, aside from money, science, management, luck and products was to have your senior scientists as fulltime employees of the company, "not still sitting at their bench in academe." He believes that scientist managers make the best leaders of biotech companies. On the question of funding, he advised his audience that it was essential to be in good shape when looking for money. If they got the chance of funding, "Take the money, forget price and forget dilution." he said.

www.investmentbanking.fortisbank.com
www.lsp.nl
www.biocapitaleurope.com

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