Conference Reports
7th Annual BioPartnering North America
Westin Bayshore Hotel, Vancouver, Canada, 8-10th February 2009
The 7th Annual Biopartnering North America Conference took place in the Westin Bayshore Hotel, set in the vibrant Vancouver downtown business district, overlooking a yacht-filled marina and snow-capped mountains. Over 1000 delegates from more than 30 countries and representing over 500 companies were in attendance, eagerly scouting for business and sizing up the many opportunities on offer.
The conference had a high pace from the outset, with workshops
and a packed welcome reception held on the Sunday
evening. The tone for the event, and indeed the year ahead,
was established with a workshop focused on developing novel
strategies to access capital in the current economic climate.
Leadership sessions throughout the conference clearly had
similar issues in mind, focusing on varied aspects of partnering
and M&A during turbulent times. An indicator of the
amount of business conducted during the conference came
from the popularity of one-to-one networking meetings. Over
2,400 were scheduled before the conference even began, with
some attendees commenting it was almost impossible to book
any more once the conference was in full swing, making informal
chats over coffee, during lunch or at the evening events
of huge importance. The Monday reception in the stunning
surroundings of the Vancouver Art Gallery proved to be a fertile
ground for such meetings.
The 10-minute podium presentations were hugely popular, with the number almost doubled from 53 in 2008 to 94 this year. Many companies were focused on developing vaccines, such as Vakzine Project Management, which in-licenses promising candidates from academia for development with a consortium of partners. These include a prostate cancer vaccine, VPM-4001, based on irradiated cells transfected to release immunostimulatory cytokines, and a tuberculosis vaccine, VPM-1002, based on an inactivated bacterium. Both are progressing through Phase I trials. Of particular interest was a preclinical cytomegalovirus vaccine, VPM-2001, consisting of lysosomes filled with antigens, known as Dense Bodies. VPM- 2001 does not need adjuncts and can be engineered to contain more antigens, which makes it an interesting candidate for future development with potentially very low safety risks.
Oncogenex presented to a crowded room, clearly generating a great deal of buzz with its 5 anticancer drugs, 3 of which are in the clinic, and its recent acquisition of Sonus. Phase II trial results were presented for OGX-001, with positive results in prostate cancer patients highlighted. This included median survival time, which was 27.5 months on OGX-001 and docetaxel, compared to 16.9 months on docetaxel alone, improvements in progressive measurable disease rates, stable disease, PSA progression and pain palliation. Oncogenex believes it has the potential to get docetaxel working again in patients failing treatment.
One company, Cynvec, announced it was bringing oncolytic viruses back to the table. This early-stage biotech company is attempting to breath life back into this much raked-over field, presenting details of its apoptotic, non-replicating RNA-based sindbis virus candidate, CYN-101, along with plans for ovarian cancer clinical trials in 2009. Promising preclinical results indicated it had significant survival benefits in multiple tumour types, tumour growth suppression in an aggressive pancreatic cancer model and specific targeting of cancer cells in in vivo imaging studies.
Virion presented its virally-produced immunomodulatory molecules, in development as anti-inflammatories. The lead compound, VT-111, inhibits monocyte and macrophage infiltration to injured tissue, tackling vascular breakdown and histologically- associated aspects of chronic rejection in transplant rejection cases. It therefore has potential to reduce tissue damage while in use with traditional therapies, such as ciclosporin, which significantly improve survival. Phase II results in acute coronary syndrome patients also demonstrated significantly reduced inflammation biomarkers, although Virion announced that in light of the promising preclinical results in transplantation, this would now be the primary focus for development.
With the conference being held in Vancouver, there was a significant focus on the world-renowned Canadian biotechnology industry, but balanced by the number of companies from around the world also presenting and attending. This variety neatly demonstrated the wide-ranging global business opportunities, both available and sought after, within the industry, which were ably represented at the conference. The whirl of activities, presentations and meetings will no doubt prove to be hugely beneficial to many delegates from all over the world, and the 8th Annual Meeting will be hotly anticipated.
Alix Biancardi
Editorial Analyst
