Increasing investor confidence

Thursday 22^nd March 2007, Four Seasons Hotel, London

About the event

The Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology sector is often news sensitive with investors rushing optimistically in based on media coverage of a scientific breakthrough as well as rushing out based on bad news. This makes it very difficult for senior management to plan effectively for the long term. Investors need to understand that it can be a long and expensive proposition from concept to product, and thus Biotech and Pharma companies have an integral part to play in educating the investment community about the key value drivers.

Investors need to understand that it can be a long and expensive proposition from concept to product and Biotech and Pharma companies thus have an integral part to play in educating the investment community about the key value drivers.

There is no question that despite the volatility of the life sciences industry, strong returns from the sector are achievable. Many biotechnology and life sciences companies are building sustainable businesses based on strong product development and are performing solidly. The difficulty for the investor is picking which companies will succeed long-term and which will not.

This event will try to answer the question "what are the investors looking for?" Is it security, growth or a mixture of both, and how should Biotech and Pharma companies respond to those demands? This will be achieved by looking at the problem from both sides: what the management should do to keep investors on board and what the stakeholders can reasonably expect of the management.

In particular, the following issues will be addressed:

• The different expectations of the institutional and private investors
• Keeping pace with the changing attitudes and requirements of today's stakeholders and responding accordingly
• How management can demonstrate that their projects are winners
• The science of successful fundraising
• The particular problems for investors of "high-risk investments" and how senior management should address those concerns
• Proving that risks have been minimised and that costs are as low as possible
• Why managed funds invest differently, and how to get them on board
• Does the market need more corporate and clinical trial information, and if so, how to deliver this information
• Which companies offer the best investment potential - large, medium or small caps?
• Why pharmaceutical and biotech stocks will outperform the market in the long run and how to communicate this
• Strategies for keeping the hard won (and easily lost) reputation
• Why it matters if shares are undervalued of if they are overvalued

Excellent speaker panel