Shire plc becomes OBN’s first Corporate Patron

OBN, the not-for-profit business network which provides comprehensive support for biotech and medtech companies in the Oxford and South-East England biocluster and beyond announces today that global specialty pharmaceutical company Shire has become the network’s first Corporate Patron. Shire will support OBN in meeting the aims of its initiative: to provide networking, partnering, group purchasing services, advice and better communication across the life sciences industry.

Shire’s great wealth of sector experience will also be employed on the OBN Advisory Board, where David Colpman, Senior Vice President of Business Development from Shire will become a valued new member. In addition, Shire will continue to be a key supporter of the Network’s annual partnering and investment conference BioTrinity.

As a Corporate Patron Shire will also host a BioTuesday, OBN’s monthly networking meeting, at its UK headquarters in Basingstoke on 26th October 2010, entitled “How to Raise Seed and Series A Funding Rounds”.

Dr Jon Rees, OBN’s CEO, said: “We are very pleased to have secured the continued and invaluable support of Shire in the newly created role of Corporate Patron of OBN. As one of the world’s leading specialty biopharma companies, OBN will continue to greatly benefit from their wealth of experience of the life science industry. Shire clearly recognises the significant value that the network provides in supporting the life science sector in Oxford and the South East region and the UK more generally. We very much look forward to the BioTuesday networking event hosted at Shire’s UK headquarters in October and to continuing our excellent and long-lasting working partnership with Shire.”

David Colpman, Senior Vice President at Shire, said: “OBN’s commitment to the life science industry is impressive and we are proud to be even more closely linked with the future success of OBN and their flagship networking event BioTrinity. The work that OBN is doing to support the pharma and biotech industry in the UK is vital for its survival, especially in the current challenging financial environment. We are excited to be able to back such an important cluster in the UK and look forward to welcoming our industry colleagues to our headquarters in October.

For more information on how to attend the October BioTuesday event or any other BioTuesdays held monthly, please contact Rachael Tidbury on 0845 521 5222. For more information on how to become a Corporate Patron to OBN please contact Jon Rees on 07795 233883.

For more information on BioTrinity and to register please visit: www.biotrinity.com