ITALIAN DELEGATION AT THE BIO CEO & INVESTOR CONFERENCE 2009

Waldorf Astoria – February 9-10, 2009
The Italian Biotech Industry: assets and opportunities for Italian-US collaboration
http://www.ceo.bio.org/opencms/ceo/2009/

NEW YORK – For the first time the Italian Trade Commission is leading a delegation of Italian biotech companies at this year’s BIO CEO & Investor Conference taking place in New York (Waldorf-Astoria, February 9-10) during which it will highlight the remarkable accomplishments of the Italian biotech sector. The Italian delegation includes 3 among the most prominent representatives of the Italian biotech industry: Molmed, Newron Pharmaceuticals and Siena Biotech.

In its 11^th year, the BIO CEO & Investor Conference is the largest independent investor conference focusing on public companies, which brings together industry executives and analysts and members of the investment community. The program includes issue-oriented plenary sessions, educational sessions focused on hot therapeutic areas and business issues, 150 company presentations, one-on-one meetings and various networking opportunities. This year the number of attendees is expected to reach 2.000, including over 100 executives from investments firms.

The Trade Commission will seek to draw the attention of investors and industry analysts to investment opportunities in Italy and to spur US biotech firms to develop collaborations with Italian counterparts. The publicly-traded companies in the delegation, namely Molmed and Newron Pharmaceuticals, have also been selected to present at the conference their recent accomplishments and upcoming miltestones to an audience of investors and business development executives of big pharmaceutical companies.

- MolMed (MLMD: Milan Stock Exchange), a medical biotechnology company focused on the development of innovative therapies for the treatment of cancer, is one of the most high profile spin-offs of the renowned San Raffale Biomedical Science Park and is the latest Italian biotech enterprise to go public with a very successful IPO in 2008.

- Newron Pharmaceuticals (NWRN: SIX Swiss Exchange) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on novel therapies for diseases of the Central Nervous System and pain.

- Siena Biotech is a private drug discovery company whose research activities focus on brain diseases, including Alzheimer, Huntington diseases and brain tumors.

The Italian biotechnology sector has made huge strides in the last few years, growing at rapid pace and currently generating over $6.2 billion in yearly revenues. It comprises 228 companies- of which more than 168 are focused on the health care segment- whose R&D spending reached TESTO2.7 billion in 2007. They are exceptionally strong in product development, with 84 compounds in clinical trials and 63 at the preclinical phase last year. The largest number of firms (36) are focused on Oncology, a field in which Italy is ranked second only to the United States. Other fields such as Vaccines, Gene Therapy, Neurosciences and Cardiovascular Diseases have also been a longtime focus of leading-edge applied medical research. Spending on R&D (already ranked fourth in Europe) is on the rise and new biotechnology ventures continue to grow, mainly as spin offs of academic work or of foreign companies. This vibrant segment of the Italian economy exhibits a growing capacity to attract resources and offers copious investment and collaboration opportunities to foreign groups. There have been several success stories of collaborative agreements between US and Italian biotech firms over the past couple of years, such as Genentech’s $310 million agreement with Nerviano Medical Science (NMS), the largest pharmaceuticals R&D facility in Italy and one of the leading oncology-focused and development company in Europe. In addition, Novartis chose the Tuscan city of Siena to expand its Italian operations and establish the Novartis Vaccines Institute for Global Health (NVGH).

To obtain a full picture of the Italian biotech sector you can download the Biotechnology in Italy Report 2008 – prepared by the consulting firm Blossom Associati on behalf of Assobiotec, the Industry Association, and the Italian Trade Commission.

Already at the forefront of innovation, Italy’s rapidly emerging biotech sector is drawing the attention of foreign companies. Find out why major international corporations have already chosen Italy as a location where to conduct research and what opportunities exist for US biotech investors on the new website www.biotechinitaly.com.

For more information, please contact:
Italian Trade Commission
Trade Promotion Section of the Consulate General of Italy
New York
Investments Desk
33 East 67^th Street - New York, NY 10021
Tel. 001 212 980-1500 -Fax. 001 212 758-1050
Email: newyork@newyork.ice.it
Or investments.desk@italtrade.com
Web: www.italtrade.com