Euro-Biotech 2003: Alloyed Optimism

Over the last decade, we've found Euro-Biotech, held each June in Paris, to be a highly sensitive bellwether of industry health. This year, the over-riding theme was the work of partnering-on both the buy and sell sides of dealmaking. There was less interest in the formal company presentations, while the one-on-one meetings, both in the partnering booths and in the suites rented out by a variety of large pharmaceutical companies, were heavily booked. The mid-sized Europeans were particularly active at the meeting, in a way seizing the opportunity left by the troubled European biotechs, who in the past stole most of the dealmaking thunder.