Fourteen Skolkovo biomed startups are currently taking part in the BIO International Convention 2017 in San Diego, California.
The four-day convention, which began on June 19, is devoted to the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotech products. Skolkovo’s startups are on show throughout the event at a Russian stand organised by the country’s Ministry of Trade and Industry. They are also taking part in individual partner sessions where they are presenting the results of their research to leading foreign pharmaceutical companies, partners and investors, Kirill Kaem, head of Skolkovo’s biomed cluster and acting senior vice president for innovations, told Sk.ru.
Skolkovo's Kirill Kaem is one of the speakers in a session devoted to developing markets on June 22. Photo: Sk.ru.
On June 22, the Skolkovo Foundation will hold a session titled “Investing in Global Biotech Scientific Solutions from Developing Markets," moderated by Stephen Sammut, a senior fellow in healthcare management at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. The speakers are Skolkovo’s Kaem; Alexey Konov, a partner at the Moscow-based RBV Capital venture fund; Werner Cautreels, president and CEO of the U.S.’s Selecta Biosciences; Steven Wang, managing and founding partner at China’s Highlight Capital; and Bobba Venkatadri, general partner at Ventureast, an Indian venture capital fund manager.
The Skolkovo startups taking part in BIO include First Oncological Scientific and Consultation Centre (PONKC), whose Oncofinder system finds the best chemotherapy for individual cancer patients based on a molecular analysis of their cancer; DRD Biotech, which has devised an express test for diagnosing ischemic strokes and risk of brain damage; cancer drug maker OncoTartis; Tartis-Aging, which is developing drugs to slow down the aging process and treat illnesses associated with aging; and Data Matrix, a cloud platform for managing big data when carrying out clinical trials.
The BIO International Convention is hosted by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), which represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centres and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations.