Stéphane Gagné, President and CEO of Ovensa Inc - a CAAP alumni - attended BIO 2017 and contributed this report on the value of the conference to Ontario’s life sciences industry.

BIO 2017: A Must for the Life Sciences Industry!

Again this year, BIO has broken all previous records with more than 16,000 participants from all over the world, exchanging ideas on potential areas of collaboration via more than 40,000 partnering meetings.

For the 4th consecutive year, Ovensa (www.ovensa.com) took fully advantage of this event to meet with nearly 100 companies either through BIO’s unique One-on-One Partnering™ system, or during various events organized by companies, governments, patient advocacy groups or BIO’s receptions.

Ovensa offers the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry a nanodelivery platform that crosses the body’s various mucosal barriers or the blood-brain barrier to deliver small and larger molecules orally or via other modes of administration.

BIO is a unique occasion for Ovensa to meet with potential customers, collaborators, researchers, patient advocacy groups, trade commissioners, CROs and other industry stakeholders working in our targeted fields of cancer, antibiotic resistance and CNS-related diseases within only one week.

I highly suggest the investment for any life science company interested in getting the pulse of what’s going on in our industry by visiting a sample of the 1,800 exhibitors, attending conferences and, obviously, taking advantage of the partnering platform to set as many meetings as possible in advance. Preparation is key for being successful and getting the most out of a conference, especially with BIO considering the size of the event and its fast pace.

This year, BIO has seen a lot of discussions around world issues such as antibiotic resistance, biological threats, immuno-oncology, mental health and other topics of health concern. The Canadian Pavilion keeps growing bigger and the Province of Ontario certainly had massive visibility across a number of tools at BIO.

Let’s make it even bigger next year with an even larger Ontario delegation. Join OBIO and your industry colleagues next year for the 2018 BIO International Convention returning to Boston, MA from June 4 – 7 to celebrate 25 years of innovation.

Mark your calendars!