Entrepreneur Jim Mellon and neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield will be among the top-flight international speakers and panelists to address the Isle of Man’s inaugural biomed conference later this year.
Expected to attract more than 100 delegates from around the world, the ManxBioMed Business Conference will raise the island’s profile within this multi-billion pound industry.
Already home to a dozen expanding biomed companies selling products and services around the world, the Isle of Man is targeting this sector as part of its ongoing strategy to diversify its economy.
‘Thanks to the calibre of speakers we have managed to secure the three-day conference is sure to attract decision makers and experts within the field - it will be the perfect opportunity to sell the island as the ideal location for biomed companies,’ said Courtenay Heading, co-founder of the ManxBioMed Cluster.
‘It will also serve to highlight the expertise of the biomed and allied companies already based on the island,’ he added.
Dubbed by the UK media as Britain’s answer to Warren Buffett, Jim Mellon is famous for notching up the biggest-ever success on London’s AIM market with Uramin, the company he co-founded in 2005 with $100,000 and sold two years later for $2.5bn.
The acclaimed investor is now backing biotech - particularly telemedicine and medical devices - as the next major growth area. His bestselling book ‘Cracking the Code - Understand and Profit from the Biotech Revolution’ portrays the bio-pharma industry as ‘the greatest single opportunity in the world today’.
Baroness Greenfield is a scientist, writer and broadcaster, whose speciality is the physiology of the brain. She has played a leading role in focusing attention on Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.
Lucius Cary, the founder and managing director of Oxford Technology Management, will chair the conference which will be held on December 9, 10 and 11.
Economic Development Minister John Shimmin will open the three-day conference.
‘The Department of Economic Development is pleased to support this exciting conference, especially as we have attracted world-class speakers, eminent panel members, and presentations by innovative biomed and medtech companies,’ said Mr Shimmin.
‘I have no doubt that this conference will continue to raise the profile of the biomed companies who are based here and will help companies collaborate to share knowledge, grow their businesses, and engage in greater innovation for the benefit of all concerned with improving healthcare.’
Sponsors of the event include Manx Telecom, KPMG, Boston Ventures, Intelligence and SEQ.
See Business Word, free with today’s Isle of Man Examiner, for the Roundtable discussion on the Isle of Man’s biomed ambitions.
