Willy
De Greef appointed New Secretary General of EuropaBio
Following the retirement of Dr. Johan Vanhemelrijck on July
1st 2008, Willy De Greef (53) will become the new Secretary
General of EuropaBio. In welcoming the new Secretary
General, Steen Riisgaard, President and CEO of Novozymes
said: "We are delighted to have a highly experienced and
deeply knowledgeable executive to lead EuropaBio and we are
confident that Willy will bring his enthusiastic and dynamic
leadership to build further on the strengths of the
association. On a personal level I was sad to learn of
Johan's decision to retire. He has done a great job in
making the association well known and well respected and I
would like to thank him for his contribution." To read the
related press release, please click
here.
EuropaBio’s National Associations bring the national message
to Europe
On 2 April, EuropaBio‘s National Associations led 7 national
delegations of company CEOs and senior executives to
Brussels to meet with nearly 40 national representatives
from the European Parliament, European Commission and the
Permanent Representations. CEOs told EU decision makers
that biotech SMEs are motors for innovation in Europe and
asked them to increase their focus on access to finance for
small and medium sized enterprises as well as give greater
emphasis to a number of key biotech issues. National
delegations came from Spain, the UK, France, Germany,
Sweden, Belgium and Greece.
On the evening before, nearly 60 guests, including MEPs,
Permanent Representatives, Commission officials, and
industry representatives, attended a cocktail and
dinner-debate that opened Brussels day. Several speakers
highlighted the importance of innovation that is powered by
SMEs in life sciences.
http://www.europabio.org/BrusselsDay/index.htm
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Visit
EuropaBio’s new event sponsorship & marketing webpage!
EuropaBio’s Event Marketing Policy
and Sponsorship Opportunities available at:
http://www.europabio.org/ev_sponsorship.htm.
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EuropaBio calls for sponsors to make EU life science and
biotechnology research information available to patients,
industry and interested stakeholders
The Life Competence database is an online network and
knowledge sharing contact system filled with EU research
projects in healthcare biotechnology that have been funded
by the EU Commission under FP6. It enables companies,
universities, NGOs to find out what research is going on in
their area and who are the partners, people and
organisations (companies and universities) working in this
field. It also enables companies and academia to keep track
of the EU projects their organization is involved in or on
what their competitors are doing!
The
development cost of this project has been funded by the EU
Commission for the last two years. Along with our partners,
AVEDAS and the KAROLINSKA INSTITUTE we are looking to
continue the project and make it self financing. Our hope is
to raise sponsorship to make access to the Life Competence
database one of the services offered to patients as part of
our new Patient Advisory Group project. The database is on
http://europabio.euproject.eu/. Access to the system
and reports is free through March 31, 2008. Interested
companies should contact EuropaBio’s Secretary-General,
Johan Vanhemelrijck,
j.vanhemelrijck@europabio.org.
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Biotech industry supports 10% biofuels targets set out by the European Commission as being
sustainable
The
European biotech industry strongly supports EU initiatives
to promote the use of biofuels to mitigate greenhouse gas
emissions. … In response to the European Environment Agency
(EEA) statement recommending that biofuels targets be
dropped from the Renewable Energy Directive,
the biotech industry notes that the EEA’s scientific
committee’s opinion is not based on any new scientific
evidence. To read EuropaBio’s press statement please click
here.
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EuropaBio Sessions at BIO 2008
To view the related flyer, please click
here.
Biopreparedness:
How to Strengthen a Transatlantic Synergistic Approach?;
Contact: Alex Custaud
a.custaud@europabio.org
Patient Access to Biotech Therapies:
Use and Misuse of Health Technology Assessments; Contact:
Michael Leader
m.leader@europabio.org
Conducting Clinical Trials on a global scale
– can current regulatory frameworks support tomorrow’s
innovations?; Contact: Michael Leader
m.leader@europabio.org
Understanding and Influencing Politics:
New Communication Tools for Political Communication;
Contact: Johan Vanhemelrijck
j.vanhemelrijck@europabio.org
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EuropaBio publishes position on the European Patent
Litigation Reform
Europabio takes the position that European patent holders
should not be forced to litigate (a) existing and (b) future
European patents in the proposed new European patent
litigation jurisdiction and the system should be optional
for both categories. Furthermore the new litigation system
should only deal with cross-border cases and that the cases
with impact at only one Member State should remain with the
respective national courts (without any cross-border impact.
To read the position, please click
here.
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Media
Articles on Plant Biotechnology available on EuropaBio
website
Media Articles on Plant Biotechnology are available on
EuropaBio’s website. Click
here to get updates on topics including “the French
media and the current debate on GMOs in France”, “GM
technology and food prices” as well as country updates.
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Former
EU agriculture commissioner calls for positive GMO policy
New
political measures are needed to ensure that global food
demand is met in an environmentally sustainable way, said
Franz Fischler, who argued in favour of GMO technology to
help produce new food crops that meet changing climatic
conditions and can be used in biofuel production. To view
the article, please click
here.
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EuropaBio Biofuels fact sheets available
EuropaBio Biofuels factsheets are available in hard copy or
online, here.
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WHO’s World Health Day 2008: protecting health from climate
change
In
2008, World Health Day (April 7th) focused on the
need to protect health from the adverse effects of climate
change. WHO selected this theme in recognition that climate
change is posing ever growing threats to global public
health security. Click
here for the website.
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EVENTS MAY - NOVEMBER 2008
For a full list of events, click
here
MAY
5-6
May; BioFusion 2008; Atlanta
JUNE
4-5 June;
Biofuels International Expo & Conference; Rotterdam
http://www.biofuelsinternationalexpo.com/conf_prog.html
17-20 June: BIO 2008; San Diego, California
For more information, visit:
http://www.bio2008.org/
22-26 June: 4th EPSO Conference: ‘Plants for Life’,
Toulon, France
For more information, visit:
www.epsoweb.org/catalog/conf2008.htm
26 June:
EuropaBio's General Assembly;
Brussels,
Belgium
For more information, click
here
(members only).
July 2008
6-9 July; HTAi 2008: Health Technology
Assessment in Context; Quebec; To visit
the website, click
here.
18-22 July; EuroScience (ESOF) Open Forum
2008, Science for a better life;
Barcelona, Spain
http://www.esof2008.org/
September 2008
15-17 September; EuropaBio's
European Forum for Industrial Biotechnology;
Brussels, Belgium; For more information,
click
here.
17-19 September;
BIOSPAIN 2008, Granada, Spain
Organization of BioSpain is led by ASEBIO.
The event will be divided to five workshops:
Scientific Seasons, International
Conferences, Investment Forum, Partnering
Activities and Trade Fair. Granada has been
selected as a new core of Biotech
Development in Spain. For more information,
please click
here.
October 2008
1-2 October;
Bioforum Milan;
www.assobiotec.it
7-9 October; EuroBiO 2008; Paris
France
http://www.eurobio2008.com/
November 2008
7-8 November;
9th EMBL/EMBO Science &
Society conference, Systems and Synthetic
Biology - Scientific and Social
Implications, Heidelberg, Germany
http://www.embl.org/sciencesociety/conference2008
17-19 November;
Bio-Europe; Mannheim (Germany) For more information:
http://www.ebdgroup.com/bioeurope/
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