Among the features of the Biotechnology Industry Organization(BIO) 10th international conference in Philadelphia this week is theALLIANCE 96 Program, the second partnering meeting sponsoredby the U.S.-Israel Biotechnology Council, a beneficiary of the U.S.-Israel Science and Technology Commission in Washington.

The five-day BIO conference, which began Sunday and will concludeThursday, is expected to attract 3,000 biotechnology industryexecutives from more than 500 companies and organizationsthroughout the world.

The U.S.-Israel partnering meeting is slated to take place during thefirst two days of the convention. The program not only highlightsIsrael's emerging biotechnology industry, but will focus on strategicbusiness alliance formation.

In addition to talking with U.S. companies, the Israeli executives willmeet with their counterparts from Egypt to discuss cooperation onhealth and agriculture problems common to both countries.

"Diseases don't respect borders," said Hassen Moawad, professor ofmicrobiology and dean of the National Institute of GeneticEngineering and Biotechnology at Mubarak City, Egypt.

Following the BIO conference the Egyptian delegation is scheduledto participate in a workshop on U.S.-Egypt cooperation inbiotechnology at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

For the BIO conference, Jonathan Cohen, president of the U.S.-IsraelBiotechnology Council, said, "We are transporting representatives ofmost of Israel's top biotech companies, the major universitytechnology transfer authorities and research institutes to this two-daymeeting."

The council pre-arranged one-on-one 30-minute meetings betweenIsraeli and American companies based on similar commercial andtechnical interests. Participating in the "matchmaking program" are27 Israeli and about 170 American companies, including BaxterHealthcare International, of Deerfield, Ill., Johnson & Johnson, ofNew Brunswick, N.J., and London-based SmithKline Beecham plc,whose U.S. headquarters are in Philadelphia.

Among public presentations at the ALLIANCE meeting will bediscussion on licensing and technology transfer opportunities inmedical, industrial and agricultural biotechnology.

"Israel is in the industry building growth phase and the mutualbenefits can be enormous," said Eli Bismut, executive director of thecouncil. n

-- Rachelle H.B. Fishman Special To BioWorld Today

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.