"I was particularly pleased with the quality and intensity of the partnering which achieved a level that has taken other conferences many years to achieve. BioTrinity is now well and truly on the partnering calendar for biotech business development," Dr Jon Rees, Network Director.

I was particularly pleased with the quality and intensity of the partnering which achieved a level that has taken other conferences many years to achieve. BioTrinity is now well and truly on the partnering calendar for biotech business development

Talk within the Oxford BioCluster is of a strong resurgence in the sector, with a flurry of deals and acquisitions in recent weeks. VASTox strengthened its pipeline with the double acquisition of DanioLabs, a private UK drug discovery company, and also acquired Dextra Labs, for a total of £18m on March 18th. Evotec have more than twice as many employees in Oxford as in Hamburg and acquired the French company Neuro3d on March 29th.

Most significantly, Oxford BioMedica announced their $690m licensing deal with Sanofi-Aventis for phase III cancer vaccine TroVax on March 28th, coinciding with BioTrinity. This comes just two weeks after BioMedica acquired former stablemate Oxxon Therapeutics for £16m.

All of this, following the huge key deals presented at BioTrinity including Pfizer's acquisition of PowderMed and Eli Lilly's $385m licensing deal with Oxford-based Prosidion, the latter transaction was described in detail by Prosidion President, Dr. Anker Lundemose (PICTURED).

OBN's Director, Dr Jon Rees, presented data which suggest that the Oxford and South East supercluster may be the most successful biotech fundraising region in the UK, highlighting that since 2004, 16 biotech and healthcare IPO's have valued the companies concerned at over £465m, raising over £157m. Those companies are now worth £740m with an average increase of 59% in market capitalisation since IPO. Over £130m in private equity financing has been raised in the same period: Chroma £38m, Oxagen £32m, Archimedes Pharma £25m and PowderMed £20m among others.

Certainly the mood at BioTrinity was optimistic with several recent funds doing the rounds including Abingworth's ABV V and the Wellcome Trusts new £90m translational seed fund.

David Mott from Oxford Capital Partners commented, "There was a high calibre of participants and the event has raised the profile the Oxford and Thames Valley biotech cluster. This will create a rising tide for us all."

BioTrinity's organisers are expecting to bring more positive news in 2008 and have expanded the meeting to two full days to accommodate the sector's insatiable demand for one-to-one partnering with the supercluster's successful players.