Press
Nasdaq and UC Berkeley To Host Third Annual Biotech-Infotech Summit
Healthcare, FDA Policy and Future Financing of Biotechnolgy Top Conference Agenda June 27-29 at UC Berkeley
Contact:
Michael Whitehouse
whitehouse@scienceconnections.com
(650) 854-1725; fax (650) 854-1760
Martha DiSario
mdisario@aol.com
(415) 331-5801; cp (415) 999-0870
Agenda information:
www.biotechsummit.com/agenda.html
June 17, 1999, (Menlo Park, CA) Several of the nation’s key policy and decision makers, including the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Chairman of the nation’s largest HMO, and a member of the National Bi-partisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, will address a gathering of more than 200 healthcare and biotech executives, venture capitalists, academics and scientists at UC Berkeley, June 27-29, at the 1999 Nasdaq International Biotech and Infotech Summit.
Dr. Jane Henney, Commissioner of Food and Drugs, FDA, Dr. David Lawrence, CEO and Chairman of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Laura Tyson, Dean, the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, and W. Michael Long, CEO of Healtheon are among the industry leaders who will speak. This year’s conference, dedicated to the coming “Biotech Powered Century,” will examine national issues of drug and medical device research and development and approvals, the economics of healthcare, patient rights, the Internet/e-commerce, and online delivery of healthcare services.
The 1999 Nasdaq International Biotech and Infotech Summit, co-sponsored by UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health and the Haas School of Business, will be held on the Haas School campus. One of the important topics that will be addressed is financing of the life science and biotechnology sectors of the economy. Nasdaq President Alfred R. Berkeley III will speak to the viability of the prevailing business and financing models with a keynote entitled, “Capital Markets and Future Financing Prospects for Life Science Companies.”
“As the marketplace that is home to so many of the nation’s leading publicly traded biotech and information technology companies, Nasdaq is very cognizant of the ebb and flow in financing of the various sectors of the market,” says Berkeley “And we are concerned about the slowdown of public funding in biotechnology,” says Berkeley.
“All the industry leaders on our Biotech Summit Advisory Board strongly believe that private and capital market funding is the lifeblood of commercial science.” “Relatively few public biotech companies receive comprehensive research coverage,” Berkeley says. “Yet investors need information to make sound decisions. One of the purposes of the Summit is to generate authoritative discussions on industry fundamentals and to provide online transcriptions of the proceedings to investors.”
How the Internet and technology are contributing to the rise of the patient movement and the associated demands for improved healthcare will also be a focus of the Summit. W. Michael Long, CEO, Healtheon (HLTH), and Luther Nussbaum, CEO of First Consulting Group (FCGI), whose companies are at the forefront of online delivery of healthcare services, will join Regis McKenna, Chairman of the McKenna Group and Rich Karlgaard, Publisher of Forbes, for a discussion on “The Internet and E-Commerce: Ushering in the Next Generation of Customer Service in Healthcare and Medicine.” The new economics and politics of healthcare will also be addressed when Tyson delivers a keynote on June 28 titled, “The Economics of Heathcare: Are We Playing By New Rules?” Kaiser Foundation Health Plan’s CEO David Lawrence will provide “Advice to Biomedical and Healthcare Innovators,” in his speech on June 29.
Advisory Board Co-Chair Ed Penhoet, Dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, notes, “This year’s conference will look at the revolution in health and patient care and other policy issues, but will also reflect market realities.”
Penhoet will chair a panel on “Restructuring the Industry to Create Value and Attract Capital,” with key executives from notable bio-pharmaceutical “successes”: Randal Scott, President of Incyte Pharmaceuticals (INCY); William Rastetter CEO, IDEC Pharmaceuticals (IDEC); David Robinson, CEO, Ligand Pharmaceuticals (LGND); and James Woody, President, Roche Bioscience.
“Very few of us would have predicted the rate growth in genomics research, with new tools such as “Gene Chips” now being utilized in diverse fields and across a wide spectrum – from developmental biology to nutrition. As these powerful analytic tools enter the diagnostic arena, they will have a major impact on the healthcare marketplace as well, ” Penhoet added. Technology will also be the means by which the FDA enhances its review process and is expected to approve a record number of products, devices and drugs in the coming decade.
“We are quite fortunate to have FDA Commissioner Jane Henney join us in our discussions,” says J. Leighton Read, M.D., Chairman and CEO, Aviron (AVIR), a member of the Advisory Board. “Her agency will play a pivotal role – not only in the direction the industry will take – but in the accelerating pace and quality of the testing and approval process. Under her guidance, the FDA will also help shape public confidence in acceptance of the new medical devices, diagnostics, vaccines, and therapies which emerge from a powerful technology base.”
Several respected scientists will hold related discussions with a look at “How Next Generation Technologies Will Change the Face of Drug Development.” David Kingsbury, CIO of Chiron (CHIR), will chair the panel with Lewis Shuster, President of Pharmacopeia (PCOP); Michael Knapp, VP for Science and Technology of Caliper Technologies; and Arthur Reidel, CEO of Pharsight.
The Nasdaq International Biotech Summit was founded three years ago in the belief that great advances in science and genomics, including breakthrough treatments in disease, are imminent and that convergence of information technologies and biotechnology is on track to change the world and the way we live. The international Summit is unique in bringing together significant allies from the policy, regulation, finance, science and technology sectors of the Life Sciences to address the key issues.
For a detailed summit agenda and complete list of speakers, visit the conference website: biotechsummit.com For other information or press credentials call or email Michael Whitehouse, Connections Corporation, at whitehouse@scienceconnections.com (650) 854-1725.
