Companies affiliated with the IOCB Tech Group showcased their know-how and services at the traditional spring gathering of the biotech industry—BIO-Europe Spring, held this year in Milan, Italy. With nearly 4,000 experts from the fields of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and investment, the event serves as a platform for establishing strategic partnerships and presenting Czech innovations.
“Conferences like BIO-Europe are key for us. We attend these events regularly, as they are the best places to build connections with industrial partners and investors. The Czech biotech scene has great potential, and we aim to help innovative projects reach a global level,” says Martin Fusek, Director of IOCB Tech.
Czech Innovations in the Spotlight
BIO-Europe Spring is one of the most important events in the field of Life Sciences, technology transfer, and drug development. The delegation of companies affiliated with IOCB Tech, together with Prague.bio and other partners at a shared booth, presented not only their know-how but also specific biotech spin-offs and other projects currently under their management.
“We focus on supporting innovative academic projects with global commercial potential. At the conference, we presented several spin-offs from our portfolio, working on novel therapeutic approaches or new diagnostic technologies,” adds David Stíbal, Deputy Director of i&i Prague.
Investment Trends and New Challenges
One of the key themes of this year’s BIO-Europe Spring was the changing investment landscape. While investors previously supported projects at very early stages of development, today some of them place greater emphasis on more advanced programs with robust preclinical to clinical data.
“This trend means that spin-offs need to be better prepared and have a clearly defined strategy not only in the scientific domain but also on the business side. That’s exactly where we can help—whether through our incubation program at i&i Prague, which helps establish spin-offs, or via our network and partnerships,” explains Stíbal.
At the same time, there is growing interest from pharmaceutical companies in directly licensing innovations that, just a few years ago, might not have been considered mature enough. The IOCB Tech group actively connects academic projects with industrial partners and helps set the right development trajectory.
The IOCB Tech group links science and business through three specialized entities. IOCB Tech is an expert center for licensing, intellectual property protection, and technology transfer for the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. i&i Prague acts as an incubator and venture builder supporting academic projects and spin-offs in the Life Sciences. PharmTheon is a translational research center focused on drug development using artificial intelligence, molecular biology, and medicinal chemistry. The group also includes the IOCB Tech Foundation, which contributes to the advancement of science, the practical application of scientific results, and greater public awareness of the benefits of science.