Year-Round
Networking for the Life Sciences
Upcoming networking and mini-events
Networking opportunities
Networking Clubs
First Thursday of the month – Innovators
Second Thursday of the month – Leaders
Third Thursday of the month – Investments
Therapeutic Spotlight: Diabetes
Join in the Diabetes networking on Thursday, September 30 at 17:00 CEST.
Diabetes is an extremely common disease, affecting a wide range of people globally. Those diagnosed can experience additional significant health problems, affecting the quality of life, mortality rate, and diabetes-related healthcare cost. Although many treatments exist for diabetes management, there are opportunities to study the disease and take further prevention measures, and for researchers to improve the lifestyles of millions who struggle every day. This month, take the opportunity to unlock the potential of additional research in diabetes discovery, management and prevention.
Lev Goldin, Director, Business Development & Licensing - Cardiovascular, Metabolism, Endocrinology & Fertility & Commercial, Merck KGAa, will be on hand to talk about Merck’s activity in the diabetes field.
Interview Spotlights
Bringing you timely content and views from other members on a regular basis.
Please reach out to us, if you would like to be featured: connector@ebdgroup.com
Sustainable?? We take that to mean a number of important steps – green chemistry, whenever possible, being only one.
What does sustainability mean for Raybow and the team?
We are now implementing our sustainability standards with our key suppliers to make sure that environmentally friendly processes are promoted and implemented as widely as possible.
AN INTERVIEW WITH: Peter Halkjaer-Knudsen, EVP, Raybow Pharma
What inspires you to innovate?
Besides knowing EBD is making a difference by inspiring attendees and delivering a sustainable event, it can be actually quite satisfying to develop and implement creative content and purposeful initiatives to support our sustainability efforts. While the bulk of my role is planning and strategy around logistics, brainstorming and implementing original ideas always feels a little more personal.
AN INTERVIEW WITH: Michelle Murawski Senior Manager, Operations, EBD Group
Do you have any insights or top tips for others driving CSR/sustainability?
I think keeping everyone informed and engaged is the key to driving CSR and sustainability in the company. The CSR team were lucky to have a continual dialog with Kymab’s senior management, many of whom were committed to and passionate about sustainability, and this has helped to keep CSR high on the agenda. Company updates and the ability to share our targets and progress have also meant more of our colleagues are aware of what CSR means, and the positive impact we can and are making in the local and wider community.
AN INTERVIEW WITH: Dr. Natalie Rynkiewicz Research Scientist and CSR chair, Kymab Ltd
Join monthly mini-events on these topics

Watch these sessions and more on CONNECTOR
Venture Capital Has Advanced Innovation in China Life Science; It Needs to Do More
At the recent ChinaBio® Partnering Forum, a group of China VCs discussed their very vibrant field: $30 billion in VC investments last year, double the year before. More young companies need support and more capital is available for them. With all the activity, exits are taking place sooner, often before companies have launched a product. But the question remains: how innovative are these companies? Greg Scott, Chairman of ChinaBio®, led the discussion that included representatives of four China VC firms.
Moderator:
Greg B. Scott – Founder and Chairman ChinaBio® Group
Panelists:
Michael Keyoung, MD, PhD – Head of North America C-Bridge Capital
Yuwen Liu – Founding Partner BOHE Angel Fund, Bio2
Hongbo Lu, PhD – Partner Vivo Capital
Victor E. Tong – Partner Decheng Capital
Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and CCRM Australia Interview
Moderator:
Susanna Ling – Business & Content Development Director EBD Group
Speaker:
Silvio Tiziani – Director, External Strategy and Planning Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, CEO, CCRM Australia
Therapeutic: Patient-centered drug development in an age of cell and gene therapies
This session will focus on how the role of patients has evolved and is evolving in an era of gene and cell therapies. These new therapies present unique opportunities not only for patient involvement in the development process but pose new challenges, of all stakeholders, around the need for long-term follow up of outcomes from gene therapy. With hundreds of gene and cell therapies in the pipeline, and some now available to patients across global markets, how will we create more uniform approaches for engaging communities and sharing data and information?
Moderator
Craig Martin – CEO Global Genes
Panelists
Rodolphe Clerval – CEO Horama
Sheila Mikhail – Co-founder and CEO Asklepios BioPharmaceutical (AskBio)
David Solomon – CEO Pharnext
Learning: Pandemic therapeutics: treating COVID-19 and beyond
While vaccines have taken the limelight, the biotech industry has been working just as hard to develop therapeutic treatments for COVID-19. From innovative new treatments to repurposing well-know drugs, identifying, testing, and manufacturing safe and effective treatments still face the same high bar for approval as before the pandemic, only with the added urgency of immediate need. Hear from some of the companies at the center of this effort about their individual initiatives as well as the broader collaborations established to address the current pandemic and thinking ahead to the next.
Moderator
Alaric DeArment – Reporter Scrip
Panelists
Cameron Durrant – Chairman and CEO, Humanigen
Leah Lipsich – VP, Strategic Program Direction, Regeneron
Holger Zimmermann – CEO, AiCuris
Learning: Answering the need: responsive CDMO partnerships
The pandemic has pressurized development, regulatory, manufacturing, and distribution timelines like never before and the biotech industry has responded rapidly to the urgent global needs for vaccines as well as other biopharmaceuticals. In the middle of this pressure-system are the people and companies that have come together to provide the needed solutions to the development and production crunch points. This collaboration close up will take a deep dive into the partnership between Rentschler Biopharma and BioNTech and examine what it took to make this collaboration successful.
Moderator
Lucie EllisView Profile – Executive Editor, In Vivo, Informa Pharma Intelligence
Guests
Oliver Hennig – Senior VP, Operations, BioNTech
Federico Pollano – Senior VP, Global Business Development, Rentschler Biopharma SE
Leading: Impact of COVID-19: Life sciences
What COVID-19 has brought upon the world is a triple inflection of change. Amazing technological advances, regulatory and reimbursement approval, and the profound social imperative for use all come together to make health tech no longer an option, but an imperative