Some 25 Swedish companies participated in this year's BIO in San Francisco. The main objective was to meet with other companies and investors through the partnering system. Another Swede on site was Anders Lönnberg, the government's national coordinator for life science.
The purpose of Anders Lönnberg's visit to BIO was to find out what the world's largest biotechnology conference can offer Swedish life science. He also contributed as a speaker and panellist at a breakfast seminar with an audience of some 90 international experts. The seminar was organized by Business Sweden and One Nucleus in London/Cambridge, one of Europe's largest life science clusters.
Anders Lönnberg. Photo Ola Björkman
The title of the seminar was “Technology Corporates and Pharma: Collaborators, Competitors or M&A Targets in Future Healthcare?”. Anders Lönnberg was joined in the panel by Alexander Grunewald, Global Head Health Innovation Strategy, Johnson & Johnson, Diego Olego, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, Philips Healthcare and Steven Powell, CEO, Cambridge Cognition.
Diego Olego. Photo Ola Björkman
The panellists agreed that there needs to be more collaboration between stake holders in healthcare and life science focusing on developing integrated solutions where new technologies are utilized. A clear focus on patient outcomes is needed and the individual patient must be put at the centre to a greater extent, particularly in chronic care.
After the panel discussion, Anders Lönnberg told the audience about the Swedish healthcare system and highlighted the new brochure about life science in Sweden and the new website.
Both Xbrane and APL had their own booth in the gigantic exhibition. Siavash Bashiri from Xbrane told the team around Anders Lönnberg that the interest from potential customers and partners was greater than ever, and they had a record number of inquiries for meetings.
Michael Brobjer from APL explained that there are three main reasons for the company to be at BIO, year after year. Firstly, the participation at BIO is a cost-effective way to meet customers. Secondly, participation is an excellent opportunity for benchmarking, i.e. how does their offer compare to that of competitors? Thirdly, it is an excellent opportunity to update their business intelligence, e.g. to discover whether new players or new technologies emerge.
When asked whether Sweden will participate in next year's BIO, Anders Lönnberg replied: "We now need to digest the impressions and make an analysis of the benefits of a possible presence. What is clear is that we must market ourselves internationally to a greater degree. Our relatively small country has much to offer that is world class, but these opportunities are too unknown today. "
San Francisco may be a charming city to visit but the venue was far from ideal for a conference attracting 15,000 attendees. Next year's BIO conference site in San Diego will be better equipped – the city has been home to several successful BIO conferences in the past. Why not put a "save the date" in your calendar: BIO 2017, June 19-22, 2017.
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco. Photo Ola Björkman.