06//09//11
QMB to host Biotech Investment Forum in London
5th October sees QMB host this well received event
QMB Innovation Centre
(“QMB” or “the Innovation Centre”)
QMB to host Biotech Investment Forum in London
in association with One Nucleus
Queen Mary BioEnterprises (QMB) Innovation Centre, London’s newest high-specification incubator facilities for start-up and early stage life science businesses, is pleased to announce that it will be hosting its Biotech Investor Forum on 5 October 2011. The event, one of London's largest investor forums, will bring together new start-up companies along with venture capitalists that invest in early-stage companies.
In association with One Nucleus, the membership organisation for international life science and healthcare companies, the Biotech Forum will focus on early stage ventures and companies seeking seed stage investment and series A financing. Early stage investment – both strategic and financial – has always been seen as an exciting but risky alternative asset class; however, in the context of today’s market turmoil, its relative risk profile is altered. These businesses are poised to exploit their market opportunities as more established players divert resources to deal with the effects of the credit crunch.
Simone Reid, Business Development Director of QMB, commented: “We are planning to create a buzzing investor forum for London, where we can attract the great and the good of the bioscience VC community. Early stage investors & business angels from across Europe will examine over 15 investment pitches at QMB, from young technology businesses across the UK. There are so many Investor Forums popping up across the UK, so we want to focus this forum on polished pitches from interesting companies, combined with investors who actually are investing. The forum will comprise presentations and case studies followed by a lively debate over drinks in the evening. The message we want to get across is that opportunities open to early stage investors, both for private investors and venture capitalists, are as good as ever.”
As well as company investment presentations, the forum will include a panel session on “thin markets” and the early stage funding gap, and a Q&A session at the end of the day looking at the issues facing the later stage biotech companies, for example M&A and late stage financings.
The event is sponsored by global law firm Dorsey and Whitney LLP and Kilburn and Strode, intellectual property rights lawyers specialising in patents, trade marks and designs.
f you would like to be considered to present at this event, please email Simone Reid, Business Development Director at QMB simone.reid@qmul.ac.uk, or register via LinkedIn at: http://events.linkedin.com/QMB-Investor-Forum/pub/725554
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About Queen Mary Bioenterprises Limited
The QMB Innovation Centre provides state of the art, customisable laboratory and office space within minutes of The City of London.
QMB provides business incubation support for new ventures and aims to become a hub for science and technology entrepreneurs in London. It provides all its clients with access to the wide range of professional services required when spinning a company out of academia and supports them through the critical phases of their development. The Innovation Centre’s proximity to the City of London means that it is well placed for clients to meet with the UK investment community and other advisers.
The 39,000 square foot facility comprises three floors of flexible work space for R&D focussed companies, from start-ups to larger 'follow on' companies. The labs have a computer controlled air handling system that allows tuning of lab air pressure regimes The labs also have pre-positioned above ceiling ducting to ease the connection of fume cupboards.. This makes QMB an ideal location for a broad range of companies, stretching from biotechs to pure chemistry plays. The Innovation Centre has a 120 seat lecture theatre and regularly hosts seminars and conferences which aim to promote the growth of the biotechnology industry in the UK.
QMB’s keystone tenant is Retroscreen Virology Ltd, a virology contract research organisation, whose bespoke facilities in the Innovation Centre include laboratory space and capacity to run clinical trials. QMB has recently signed its second tenant, iGene which will be housed on the first floor.
The QMB Innovation Centre is a wholly owned company of Queen Mary, University of London. It is the culmination of a four-year capital investment partnership between Queen Mary and the London Development Agency.
Document: QMB Investment Forum Flyer (1271 kb)