The theme of the fifth and final panel discussion at BioStock Life Science Summit 2019 was Key learnings from entering a Big Pharma partnership. Jan Børge Jakobsen from Bayer Pharmaceutical, Per Nilsson from Pilloxa, Kay Brickmann from AstraZeneca, and Martin Olovsson from OnDosis all shared their partnering experiences from different perspectives.

The discussion began with Olovsson guiding the audience through his experience co-founding and managing Ondosis as a spinout from AstraZeneca. He later went into details about the spinout process, corroborated by Astra’s Kay Brickmann. Brickmann later talked about the importance of building trust between the parties negotiating deals.

Pilloxa’s co-founder Per Nilsson shared his experience leading Pilloxa to a partnership with Bayer, which began with Pilloxa presenting Bayer with their product idea via email. The relationship is now developing during ongoing studies and is still in its youth.

Jan Børge Jakobsen described the background of a licensing deal between biotech startup Algeta and Bayer in 2009. The partnership lasted 5 years until the first product launched, after which Bayer acquired Algeta. Jakobsen went on to tell about the acquisition process and the relationship between the two companies during that time.

A few other experiences were shared by the panelists during the discussion, including Per Nilsson’s experience as a young entrepreneur just recently getting into a partnership with Big Pharma. Overall, the feeling on stage was that partnering is exciting, however there is no shortage of challenges in the partnership process, no matter the stage of drug development or the type of partnership. One of key challenges described during the discussion is the usual cultural clash between a small company and a large company. See the panel discussion below.

This panel discussion ended BioStock Life Science Summit – 2 days full of interesting showcases by small/medium size companies and many fascinating panel discussions aimed at educating the audience about capital-raising, deal making and partnering within the pharma and medical device industry. Not to mention the intriguing networking that went on during the breaks.

The BioStock team extends its sincere gratitude to all participants for their contribution to BioStock Life Science Summit 2019, and we look forward to having you all back in October 2020!