mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-6636
DURHAM — While most other industries shed jobs in 2009, biotechnology employment grew by 1 percent.
That was just one of the pieces of good news that presenters rolled out for the 900 people attending the Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s 19th annual Biotech Conference on Monday.
The two-day conference kicked off at the Raleigh Conference Center in the morning with a “Pharma Partnering Session,” a series of structured introductions and meetings between large pharmaceutical companies and emerging biotechnology companies. The conference is also holding multiple sessions on financing and the emergence of personalized health care, and offered an update on health care reform.
The program was a new component to the conference this year, added to encourage alliances, licensing agreements and perhaps mergers in the future as a difficult economic environment gives way to more opportunities this year, according to CED President Joan Siefert Rose.
“Most everybody I’m talking to feels more upbeat this year,” Rose said.
While statewide unemployment climbed to record levels in 2009, the biotech industry’s employment grew by 1 percent, Rose noted.
“It’s been a bright spot in the economy. The feeling of most of the people I’m talking to is that this year is going to be stronger,” she added. “The strong companies that we have survived the recession. The companies we have today have learned how to manage their cash.”
Gov. Beverly Perdue spoke Monday, and conference visitors got updated information on how health care reform could affect the industry.
It continues today with more events, including a panel on leadership moderated by Christy Shaffer, former CEO of Inspire Pharmaceuticals, and the presentation of the CED Biotechnology Leadership Award to Randall Marcuson, former president and CEO of Embrex Inc. of Durham, which was acquired by Pfizer Animal Health.
