Experts explain how to drive business development with BIO 2026

The BIO International Convention, the world’s largest annual gathering of biotechnology stakeholders, provides an exceptional opportunity to make the connections that enable development of biotech innovations.

In discussing plans for BIO 2026, running June 22-25 in San Diego, prospective licensees have said they hope to find companies with good data, while companies spoke of seeking investors who share their vision. Both groups said any partnership requires a strategic fit.

Veterans of the BIO International Convention explained how they use the event to drive business development in a May 6 online webinar, part of a series of webinars on business development presented by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), which organizes the convention.

“BIO 2026 does not start in June. It starts long before, because it takes time to prepare, assess, build your presentations, etc.” said Carlos Velez, managing partner at Lacerta Bio and the panel’s moderator.

Panelists said a big part of preparation involves engaging with the BIO Partnering platform, a bespoke system allowing partners with matching needs to find one another and schedule meetings before BIO 2026 begins. Panelists praised the platform’s real-time communication and scheduling functions.

Mackensie Vernetti, SVP of Partnering at BIO, informed the webinar audience of a newly added feature allowing participants to create a direct link to their company’s platform space, so they can share via social media or email. BIO Partnering platform participants who click on the link go straight to a form to request a meeting. (See more on this and other resources here.)

Why go to BIO 2026?

For companies, business development at BIO 2026 obviously involves finding investors, but it’s also about finding partners with similar research interests, said Anjan “AJ” Aralihalli, CEO of Raya Therapeutic, Inc., which develops drugs for ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases.

“My goals at BIO 2026 are going to be primarily to look for and talk to investors—as well as strategic partners who are interested in the neurodegenerative neuromuscular disease space,” he said.

Christian Rohlff, CEO and Founder of Oxford BioTherapeutics, said the BIO International Convention is an opportunity to touch base with current partners and find new ones.

The situation is similar for those seeking to invest in small biotechs, according to Jennifer Halbleib, U.S. Partnering Transactions Head, Roche and Genentech Corporate Business Development. She said her BIO 2026 goals include “identifying new opportunities for folks we haven’t previously engaged with, as well as hearing updates from companies that we’ve been chatting with for a while.”

Jennifer O’Cain, Catalyst Pharmaceuticals’ VP of Business Development – Search, Evaluation & Scientific Competitive Intelligence, said her firm focuses on rare diseases and uses “a buy-and-build” model, so she’ll be seeking investments.

“My activity at BIO 2026 is going to be back-to-back meetings focused on somewhat mature opportunities, something like post-proof-of-concept with a regulatory pathway,” she said.

Finding partners with a ‘strategic fit’

Roche and Genentech’s Business Development team receives about 1,000 meeting requests for a typical BIO International Convention, according to Halbleib. She said the deciding factor when choosing which meetings to accept is whether companies have a “strategic fit,” a concept underscored by the other panelists.

Juan Cueva, Senior Director of Search & Evaluation at Johnson & Johnson said his firm won’t seek invitations. “We’re the ones reaching out to companies to say, we’d like to meet with you,” he explained. “And we do that based on already assessing whether or not this is a strategic fit.”

Cueva and others mentioned using AI to screen potential partner matches, and for this reason he urged conference attendees to give thorough entries to the BIO Partnering platform. “My advice to the companies that are going to BIO 2026: Please fill out your profile, provide a non-confidential deck, because that’s what we’re using to identify who we want to reach out to,” he explained.

When Catalyst meets potential partners, they have already “done our homework going into the meeting,” O’Cain said. “We’re very interested in the status and timelines of clinical development, also the regulatory path, just to really understand, you know, how this fits within our strategy.”

What makes a successful meeting at BIO 2026

In discussing what makes them want to continue a conversation with a potential partner, a common theme among the investors was hard data.

“So what we really want to see are the proof points, the data, depending on the stage, especially if it’s an early stage asset, we want to see that in vivo or in vitro discovery data, validating the asset,” said Cueva of Johnson & Johnson.

Making your story clear and concise can save a lot of time, O’Cain added. She suggested companies treat their initial contact like a 30-second elevator pitch, summarizing their advantages.

Aralihalli said it’s important for companies to just be clear about their situation with investors.

“They’re not going to expect every single box to necessarily be checked. But I do believe, being honest and being very transparent about what you do have and what you don’t have is going to be very important,” he said.

Rohlff agreed, “it’s super important to be realistic about expectations.” Once the data and possibilities are clear, the decision about whether to partner depends on “positive energy, momentum, and following your gut feeling a bit,” he said.

Find out more about the BIO International Convention.

Find out more about the BIO Partnering platform.

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