Prague, February 23, 2017 – Ambitious biotechnologies of the Czech scientists will be presented to major domestic and foreign investors at an international conference BioSpot, which will be held on 1st March 2017 in Prague's DOX Centre for Contemporary Art.
The projects of Czech scientists in the field of life sciences have drawn the attention of domestic and foreign private investors for many years. It is the private investments that can help ambitious scientific projects to succeed on the market, and it often offers investors superior appreciation rate in return. The reason for a need of private investments is that the Czech Republic spends annually incommensurably less funding on life sciences research than comparable countries such as Austria or Denmark.
Due to lack of experience and opportunities among other reasons, researchers and private investors are often not able to agree on the conditions of private investment entry into projects that are funded from various sources, including public sources. BioSpot International Conference was established in 2016 with the aim of creating a platform for scientists and private investors in the field of life sciences. It is organized by MedChemBio cluster, the Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine of Palacky University, Olomouc, and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague).
"BioSpot platform gathers the most advanced technologies in the field of life sciences and biomedicine, assessing their developmental and commercial potential. The most interesting research results are presented to potential investors at annual conferences. Besides mediating a direct contact of scientists with the commercial sector we aim for a long-term cultivation of an innovative environment, penetration of investment capital to the Czech Republic and removing barriers between researchers and investors," Marián Hajdúch, Director of the Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Palacky University, Olomouc, explains the formation grounds of the conference.
"Until last year we lacked such a conference, which would have connected promising scientific applications with investment capital," says Martin Fusek, Vice-Director for Strategic Development, IOCB Prague. "Our ambition is to make BioSpot Conference a main event of this type in the Central European region attracting both top research teams and experienced investors, who can assist with the implementation of their results."
"BioSpot is one of the tools for implementation of research results into practice in compliance with the priorities stated in the National Research and Innovation Strategy for smart specialization of Czech Republic," comments Marek Jetmar, Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister for R & D in Czech Republic.
The area of medicine and biotechnologies is one of the major sectors targeted by the consulting company PwC Czech Republic, which welcomes the establishment of this unique platform in the Czech Republic. "We can see a raising interest of investors in life sciences with our clients as well as on the entire Czech market. We are also pleased by the increasing number of projects that emerge in Czechia. We have a lot of experience with investors, whom we have helped to engage in such projects," says Jan Hadrava, an expert on transaction at PwC Czech Republic.
For Merck Group, promotion of innovations based also on the emerging platforms such as BioSpot, is a part of the strategy. "We are pleased that this project is arising here in the Czech Republic with the ambition to cover Central Europe," a new life sciences Division Chief by Merck for Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, Carlos Senties, declares regarding BioSpot.
The second Annual Conference will be held on 1st March 2017 at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague. The expert programme consists of eight talks and nine poster presentations about selected technologies, that will contend for the attention of major domestic and foreign investors. Among the investors are e.g. British J & J Innovation and German Merck Group, whose representatives will have contributions at the conference presenting their own criteria of search for investment opportunities.
Web and conference programme: www.biospot.eu
Media Contact:
Peter Vanek, Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Palacky University, Olomouc
peter.vanek@upol.cz
mob.: 775 050 355