Europe’s healthcare

biotech ‘stars’:
How can we nurture
them?
Confessions from the front lines
Brussels, 10 June 2014

Supported by
 AGENDA

Europe’s healthcare biotech ‘stars’: How can we nurture them?

Confessions from the front lines
A Science|Business dinner debate
Healthcare biotech is a diverse sector, ranging from large multinational enterprises –
with global annual sales exceeding €10 billion and annual research and development
(R&D) expenditures of €1 - €4 billion – to much smaller enterprises with fewer than
ten employees and only grant-based income. It also includes hundreds of thousands
of talented researchers, doctors and healthcare workers – all striving to push the
frontiers of medical know-how.

18:30 Welcome & introduction

■■ Richard L. Hudson, CEO & Editor, Science|Business

18:35 Europe’s Healthcare Biotech Stars

■■ Case study I: Jörn Aldag, uniQure, on better, faster procedures for getting new
medicines to market
■■ Case study II: Edwin Moses, Ablynx, on the biotech healthcare value chain

18:55 Moderated discussion

Opening statements:
■■ Dainius Pavalkis, Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania
■■ Rudolf Strohmeier, Deputy Director-General, DG RTD, European Commission
■■ Emmanuel Chantelot, Chairman of EuropaBio’s Healthcare Biotechnology Council
Moderator: Richard L. Hudson, CEO & Editor, Science|Business

19:30 Dinner debate

Co-moderated by:
■■ Richard L. Hudson, CEO & Editor, Science|Business
■■ Nathalie Moll, Secretary General, EuropaBio
Opening statements: The view from the Parliament:
■■ Vicky Ford, Member, European Parliament
■■ Philippe De Backer, Member, European Parliament
 Europe’s healthcare biotech ‘stars’: How can we nurture them?
PARTICIPANTS
Jörn Aldag
CEO, uniQure
Jörn Aldag is CEO of gene therapy company
uniQure N.V., Netherlands, which received
the first approval of a gene therapy product
by any Western regulatory agency and
recently listed the company on NASDAQ. He
is Chairman of alternative antibody company
Molecular Partners AG, Switzerland. He
previously transformed Evotec AG from being
a provider of ultra-high throughput screening
equipment to being a leading CRO for small
molecule research, listed the company at the
Frankfurt Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, and
managed the acquisition of LSE-listed Oxford
Asymmetry and NASDAQ-listed Renovis Inc.
Philippe De Backer
Member, European
Parliament
Before joining the European Parliament,
Philippe worked as Technology Transfer
Officer at CRP-Santé and as analyst at Vesalius
Biocapital, a Luxembourg-based venture
capital firm specialised in the life-sciences.
He has an expertise in the valorisation of IP
developed by public research institutes and
setting-up early ventures in the life-sciences.
In the last Parliament, Philippe was a full
member of the Transport and Tourism
Committee. He was recently reelected for
the new Parliament. His main interests lie
in the field of transport infrastructure and
functioning of logistics markets, the regulation
of financial institutions and innovation policy.
Thomas Allvin
Health Counsellor,
Permanent Representation
of Sweden to the EU
Thomas Allvin has been Health Counsellor
for Sweden, at the Swedish Permanent
Representation to the EU, since August
2010. As Health Counsellor he represents
Sweden in the Council Working Party for
Public Health and the Council Working Party
for Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices,
and has negotiated such files as the Clinical
Trials Regulation, the Cross-border healthcare
Directive, the Tobacco Directive and the
Medical Devices Regulations. Before that he
spent several years working in the Swedish
Parliament (at the EU Affairs Committee and
the Research Service, respectively).
Binah Baum
Co-Founder and CEO, Alma
Bio Therapeutics
Binah Baum is a seasoned biotech executive
and entrepreneur, with many years of
experience in the commercialization of
biomedical technologies from concept through
startup creation, incubation, nurturing and
funding. She began her professional career
at Adler & Co. in New York. Following that
experience, she has continued to be actively
involved in funding and establishing many
biomedical startup companies in Europe, the
USA and Israel. She is also the founder of Bio
Negev, Israel’s first innovation-driven cluster.
Baum is currently the co-founder and CEO of
Alma Bio Therapeutics, a Lyonbiopole-based
startup company developing a paradigm shift
in immune-modulation.
 PARTICIPANTS
Emmanuel Chantelot
Head of International
Government Relations and
Public Affairs, Shire
Emmanuel Chantelot has been the Chairman
of EuropaBio’s Healthcare Biotechnology
Council and Vice-Chair of the EuropaBio
Board of Directors since June 2013. At Shire
Pharmaceuticals, Emmanuel is the Head
of International Government Relations
and Public Affairs, responsible for shaping
the international policy and regulatory
environment to enable Shire’s delivery of value
in the company’s International Commercial
regions and markets across Europe, CEEMEA,
Asia Pacific, Japan, China, Canada and Latin
America.
Francis P. Crawley
Executive Director, Good
Clinical Practice Alliance—
Europe
Francis P. Crawley is the Executive Director of
the Good Clinical Practice Alliance – Europe in
Brussels, Belgium. He is the co-founder and a
Steering Committee member of the Strategic
Initiative for Developing Capacity in Ethical
Review. He is a philosopher specialised in
ethical, legal, and regulatory issues in health
research, teaching at several European,
Asian, and Middle East universities. He is the
past Secretary General, Ethics Officer, and
Chairman of the Ethics Working Party at the
European Forum for Good Clinical Practice.
He has acted as an author or expert for the
leading international and European research
ethics and GCP guidelines, as well as for
several guidelines in Asia, Africa, the Americas,
and Europe.
Anaïs Le Corvec
International Project
Manager, Vall d’Hebron
Institut de Recerca (VHIR)
Anaïs is a specialist in international
project management. She has worked in
many different fields such as ICT, Health,
International Cooperation, Innovation. She has
a background in Marketing and International
Management from HEC Montreal, Canada.
Now based in Barcelona, she is working as
a Research Advisor for the Vall d’Hebron
Institute of Research, as well as a consulting
expert for other entities in the field of business
and research management.
Vicky Ford
Member, European
Parliament
Vicky Ford was first elected as Conservative
Party member of the European Parliament
for East of England in the 2009 European
Parliament election. She was recently
reelected for the new Parliament. She was the
UK Conservative spokesperson for Industry
and Research, sitting on the Committee on
Industry, Research and Energy and also has
seats on the Committee on the Environment,
Public Health and Food Safety and the
Committee on Economic and Monetary
Affairs. Before entering politics, Ford spent
14 years in Finance, mostly at JP Morgan,
specialising in infrastructure and project
financing. She studied maths and economics
at Trinity College, Cambridge.
 Europe’s
Europe’s healthcare
healthcare biotech
biotech ‘stars’:
‘stars’: How
How can
can we
we nurture
nurture them?
them?

PARTICIPANTS
■■ Eva Grut-Aandahl
Eva Grut-Aandahl Svens Henkuzens
Head of European Health Attaché, Permanent
Government Affairs/EU Representation of the
Representation Office, Republic of Latvia to the EU
Pfizer
Eva Grut-Aandahl is Head of Pfizer’s EU Svens Henkuzens graduated from Maastricht
Representation Office/European Government University with an Msc.in Healthcare Policy,
Affairs. Eva joined Pfizer in 1991 and during Innovation and Management. From 2012 to
the past 23 years has held roles in different 2014 he worked as a Senior Official in the
geographic regions within public affairs, Ministry of Health of Latvia. He started his
government affairs, brand public affairs, and current position as Health Attaché at the
commercial support. She is a member of Permanent Representation of the Republic of
Pfizer’s International Public Affairs Leadership Latvia to the European Union in January 2014.
team and provides support to Pfizer’s
Executive Leadership team. In March 2009,
Eva became Head of the EU Representation
Office/European Government Affairs. Eva is
a lawyer by training, specialised in European
law, IP and trade law.

Richard L. Hudson Gleb Kurochkin

CEO & Editor,
Science|Business
Richard L. Hudson co-founded
Science|Business in 2005 with Peter Wrobel
and Malcolm Laws. He has been a leading
science and technology journalist in Europe
for more than 30 years.
As managing editor of The Wall Street Journal
Europe from 1997 to 2003, he helped lead a
redesign of the title in 2000. He is a graduate
of Harvard, and a former Knight Fellow at MIT.
In 2004 he co-authored a book with Yale/ IBM
“fractal” mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot:
The (mis)Behavior of Markets: A fractal view
of risk, ruin & reward. Basic Books 2004.
Counsellor for science and
technology cooperation,
Permanent Mission of the
Russian Federation to the EU
Gleb G. Kurochkin is Counsellor for science
and technology cooperation at the Permanent
Mission of the Russian Federation to the
European Union.
He is currently contributing to the Joint
Committee for R&D&I between the Russian
Federation (on the part of the Ministry
of Education and Science of the Russian
Federation) and the European Union (on the
part of the European Commission). Gleb has
studied and worked in Russian, Europe, USA.
 PARTICIPANTS
PARTICIPANTS
Nathalie Moll
Secretary-General,
EuropaBio
Nathalie Moll has spent nearly 20 years
working for the biotech industry at EU and
National level. Nathalie started working in
the biotechnology and food policy area for
the European Crop Protection Association in
Brussels and then moved to Rome to work
for Dompé Farmaceutici S.p.A and the Italian
National Biotech Association dealing with
the implementation of European biotech
legislation at National level. Within EuropaBio,
Nathalie has held the posts of External
Relations Manager, Director for Strategic
Policy, Director for Healthcare Biotech,
Director for Agricultural Biotech sector and
Secretary General since 2010.
Paolo Morgese
Director of European
Research, Deerfield
Institute
Paolo Morgese has been Director of European
Research at the Deerfield Institute since
August 2012 where he focuses on all the
regulatory and market access activities in
Europe and coordinates European research.
In the previous 11 years, he had worked in
HTA related roles at Merck Serono, Kyphon
and Agenas.
Currently, Paolo is chair of the EuropaBio HTA
Topic Group and member of the EUnetHTA
Joint Action 2 Stakeholder Forum. Paolo holds
an MSc in Financial and Business Economics
from the University of Essex, United Kingdom
and a Laurea in Economics from the University
of Siena, Italy.
Nuala Moran
Managing Editor,
Science|Business
Nuala Moran manages website editorial
content and writes news and features
for Science|Business. One of Europe’s
most experienced science and technology
journalists, Nuala was formerly managing
editor of Nature, innovation editor of the The
Independent on Sunday and deputy editor
of Computer Weekly. For the past 14 years
she has covered the European biotechnology
sector for the US publication BioWorld, and
is a contributor to Nature Biotechnology. She
has also been a regular contributor to the
Financial Times.
Edwin Moses
CEO, Ablynx
After completing his post-doctoral research in
Germany, Edwin Moses began a commercial
career with successful periods spent at
Amersham International, Enzymatix and
Raggio-Italgene. From 1993-2001, first as CEO
and later as Chairman, he was responsible
for the growth of Oxford Asymmetry (OAI)
through a series of venture rounds cumulating
in a flotation (LSE) in 1998 at a value of £120
million. This was followed by a sale of the
company to Evotec Biosystems in 2000 for
£316 million. During this period, OAI grew
from four people to over 250. He has been
Chairman of Ablynx from 2004 till 2013, and in
2006 he was appointed Chief Executive Officer
of the Company.
 Europe’s healthcare biotech ‘stars’: How can we nurture them?
PARTICIPANTS
Dainius Pavalkis
Minister of Education and
Science of the Republic of
Lithuania
Dainius Pavalkis graduated from the
Lithuanian University of Health Sciences
with the qualification of a medical doctor.
He continued his studies at the clinical
residency programme and later completed
post graduate studies. He has published over
280 scientific papers, and is a co-author of
two textbooks. Recently he is a member of
various international medical organisations.
Also he is a member of the editorial boards
of Lithuanian and foreign medical journals. In
December 2012, Prof. Pavalkis was appointed
Minister of Education and Science of the
Republic of Lithuania.
Tapani Piha
Head of Unit e-Health
and Health Technology
Assessment, DG SANCO,
European Commission
Tapani Piha works as Head of eHealth & Health
Technology Assessment Unit in the European
Commission. The Unit deals also with data
handling and protection in healthcare, expert
advice for EU health systems, and coordinates
health research policies. He has been
responsible for health information, health
strategy, health law, and human resources.
Before joining the Commission, he carried out
epidemiological and intervention research on
health behaviours and cardiovascular disease.
Then he held positions at the Finnish Ministry
of Health, and coordinated Finland’s EU
policies in health in 1995-2001.
Leo Peeters
Ambassador, FPS Foreign
Affairs, Foreign Trade and
Development Cooperation,
Belgium
Andrzej Rys
Director, Public Health
and Risk Assessment,
DG SANCO, European
Commission
Andrzej Rys is a medical doctor graduated
from Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland.
He specialized in radiology and public health.
In 1991 he established School of Public
Health (SPH) at the Jagiellonian University
and he was the SPH’s director till 1997. From
1997-1999 he took up the post of director
of Krakow’s city health department. In 1999
- 2002 he became the deputy Minister of
Health in Poland and developed a new system
of emergency medicine and new education
system for nurses. He was a member of the
Polish accession negotiators team and joined
the European Commission in June 2006.
 PARTICIPANTS
Didier Schmitt
Scientific Adviser and Foresight
Coordinator, BEPA, European
Commission
Didier Schmitt is Scientific Adviser and
Foresight Coordinator at the European
Commission since December 2012. In this
role, Schmitt works in the team of the Chief
Scientific Adviser and in the Bureau of
European Policy Advisers to the President.
He is responsible for foresight & anticipation;
knowledge exchange and innovation; contacts
with a wide range of institutes, societies and
research bodies; as well as a wide range of
policy areas, including health and consumers,
space, environment and climate, and the
digital agenda.
Anna Lönnroth Sjödén
Head of Unit Scientific
Affairs Unit, European
Research Council Executive
Agency
Anna Lönnroth Sjödén is Head of the Scientific
Affairs Unit at the European Research Council
Executive Agency (ERCEA), linked to the
European Commission’s DG RTD. The Scientific
Affairs Unit is in charge of the scientific
evaluations of grant applications submitted
in response to all main calls for research
proposals across all fields of science. Before
joining the ERCEA, she was Deputy Head of
the Infectious Diseases and Public Health Unit
in DG RTD in the European Commission, where
she managed research policy development,
priority setting and proposal evaluations.
PARTICIPA
Manimaaran
Sivasegaram
Head, Technology Strategy
Board, Brussels office
Mani is the Head of the Technology Strategy
Board’s Brussels office, which was established
in December 2013. Prior to joining TSB, he
was a Seconded National Expert in DG RTD,
a role he held for two years. Mani’s role in
the TSB involves liaising with the European
Commission and working with potential
partners and stakeholders across all of the
Technology Strategy Board’s programmes with
a view to better exploiting synergies between
the Commission and the Technology Strategy
Board’s national programmes and providing
UK business with advice on opportunities for
participation in EU programmes.
Rudolf Strohmeier
Deputy Director General,
DG Research and
Innovation, European
Commission
Rudolf W. Strohmeier was born 1952 in
Würzburg (Germany) and studied law and
economics in Würzburg and Bonn. He wrote
his doctoral thesis about the European
Monetary System. After working as assistant
teacher at Würzburg University he joined in
1980 the Bavarian Liaison Office to the Federal
Government in Bonn from which he was
seconded as national expert to the EU-
Commission for nearly 2 years. Having
worked in DG Agriculture and as Adviser in
the Commission President’s Cabinet, Italian
Prof. Romano Prodi, he became Head of the
2nd Cabinet of Luxembourger Commissioner
Viviane Reding. On February 17, 2010 he was
nominated as Deputy Director General of DG
RTD.
 Europe’s healthcare biotech ‘stars’: How can we nurture them?
ANTS PARTICIPANTS
Marcin Szumowski
President & CEO,
OncoArendi Therapeutics
Marcin Szumowski is a serial entrepreneur.
Following a successful research career in the
United States, Marcin has been involved in
technology transfer and start-up companies
since 2000 and has co-founded and managed
five start-ups, including a medical diagnostics
company Medicalgorithmics S.A., where
he was President and CEO 2005-2010.
Medicalgorithmics is now traded on the
Warsaw Stock Exchange with a market cap
of approx. 250M euro and global sales. Since
2012 he is President & CEO of OncoArendi
Therapeutics, a Polish drug discovery start-up.
Over the last 15 years Marcin has managed
approx. 40 R&D and investment projects with
a total value of over 200M euro.
Pierre Vigier
Adviser, Added value of
Research and Innovation
of the European Union, DG
RTD, European Commission
Pierre Vigier is a specialist in European
affairs, in particular industry and innovation.
He began his career in France (1981-1987)
within a number of ministerial cabinet
offices and at the Territory Planning Agency
(DATAR). He was responsible for Integrated
Regional Development Programmes for
South of France and for the preparation of
the French Motorway Plan 1988-2003. In
1988, he joined the European Commission
with responsibilities in automobile industrial
affairs, where he notably negotiated the
commercial agreement between Japan and
the European Union in the automobile sector
(1991-2000) and followed the restructuring
of large European groups in that sector.
He subsequently coordinated Industrial
cooperation of EU with Asia.
NOTES
NOTES
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