Benjamin P. CHENManaging Director, Burrill & Company

Partnerships between biotech and pharma or biotech and biotech are important to the growth of biotech companies and the industry. While the biotech industry is undergoing a sea change and a major transformation, partnership and strategic alliances between companies will not diminish but to the contrary, will play an even more important role in the biotech. Driven by rapid advances in science around the world and the emergence of biotech clusters around the world, we will also see significant increase in international alliances. Well negotiated licensing deals, development partnerships and strategic alliances, while vital to the successful growth of many biotech companies, achieving them are both time consuming and highly dependent on experience. In this presentation, we will review some the common negotiation mistakes to avoid. We will also discuss the role intermediaries may play in optimizing the outcome of negotiations.