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News Release

Last modified: Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Business partnerships are focus of Feb. 13 Indiana Life Sciences Collaboration Conference event

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 21, 2009

EDITORS: A complete program schedule, links to the participants' biographies and parking information is available at https://www.kelley.iu.edu/cbls/conferences/conf3.html. Media interested in attending need to contact George Vlahakis of IU University Communications at 812-855-0846 or gvlahaki@indiana.edu or Kelli Conder of CBLS at 812-856-0915 or kconder@indiana.edu. No cameras will be permitted.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Business partnerships among life sciences companies will be the focus of the third seminar in the 2008-09 Indiana Life Sciences Collaboration Conference Series at the Eli Lilly and Co. Corporate Center in Indianapolis on Feb. 13.

Dr. Jia Chen, program executive for strategic alliances in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer at IBM Systems & Technology Group, will give the keynote address, "From Radical Innovation to Radical Collaboration, an Industry in Consolidation, Integration and Discontinuity."

Chen pioneered breakthroughs in molecular memories and circuits. Her work was recognized as part of the "Breakthrough of the Year" in Science magazine in 2001.

A fellow of the United Engineering Foundation since 2000, Chen was named one of the top 35 technology innovators under the age of 35 by MIT Technology Review Magazine in 2005. In 2006, she was named one of the top 15 innovators of Nano 50 by Nanotech Briefs, and one of the nation's top 80 brightest young engineers by the National Academy of Engineering.

She received her Ph.D. in physics in 2000 from Yale University, where she pioneered breakthroughs in molecular memories and circuits.

The conference also will feature representatives from Eli Lilly and Co., Barnes & Thornburg LLP, BioCrossroads, Vantage Partners, BioConvergence, Purdue Technology Centers and Volatus Advisors LLC. It will take place from 8:50 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.

"No single organization has all of the expertise required to produce innovative solutions," said Larry Davidson, director of the Center for the Business of Life Sciences in IU's Kelley School of Business. "An intregal part of the industry's strategy should be to seek partnerships with other organizations across the value chain.

"The conference will address how companies -- and perhaps an industry -- can be transformed through partnering, what it takes to move to a fully networked virtual company and the tools and techniques needed to effectively build lasting and successful relationships between partners," Davidson added.

This conference is sponsored by Barnes & Thornburg LLP, BioCrossroads and Eli Lilly and Co. The series financial sponsors include BioCrossroads, Baker & Daniels, Barnes & Thornburg LLP, Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, Covidien Imaging Solutions, Cook Medical, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Eli Lilly and Co., Ice Miller LLP, the Indiana Economic Development Corp., IU, the IU Maurer School of Law--Bloomington, the IU School of Medicine, Purdue University and Zimmer. For a complete list of all sponsors, see https://www.kelley.indiana.edu/cbls/conferences/confsponsors.html. It is the eleventh in a series that began in the fall of 2006.

Registration is available online at www.kelley.indiana.edu/cbls/conferences/confreg.html or by contacting Roxie Glaze at the Kelley School at 812-855-9210 or rglaze@indiana.edu. The registration fee is $50.

The next event in the series will be the conference "Strategic Collaborations" on May 14 at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Jim Ward, vice president and chief procurement officer at Eli Lilly and Co., will open the conference and introduce keynote speaker Chen. Following her address, Jonathan Hughes, a partner and director at Vantage Partners, will present "Cracking the Code of Collaboration -- Counterintuitive Principles for Successful Partnerships."

David S. Thompson, director and chief alliance officer of the Office of Alliance Management at Eli Lilly and Co., will close the morning with the session "Developing and Implementing Collaborative Governance and Effective Decision-Making."

Following lunch, Lori Leroy, public relations and marketing director of BioCrossroads, will give an update about the organizaton and introduce Gino Santini, senior vice president for corporate strategy and business development at Eli Lilly.

Santini will be followed by a panel discussion, "Practical Considerations of Partnering," moderated by Marcus Chandler, partner and chair of the Entrepreneurial Services Group and Global Services Practice at Barnes & Thornburg LLP. On the panel will be Alisa Wright, CEO of BioConvergence; John Hanak, statewide director of the Purdue Technology Centers; Bradford G. Addison, partner and co-chair of the Life Sciences Practice Group at Barnes & Thornburg LLP; and Raul Zavaleta, partner in Volatus Advisors LLC.

Chandler will offer closing remarks.

In addition to organizing the workshop series, the CBLS operates a Web site at www.kelley.iu.edu/cbls that includes research studies by Kelley faculty, MBA students and industry professionals about various segments of life science industries and the challenges presented.

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