ACI Pharma/Biotech Collaborative Agreements Conference

    By Donald Zuhn --

American Conference Institute (ACI) will be holding a conference on Structuring, Negotiating, and Managing Pharma/Biotech Collaborative Agreements from April 30 to May 1, 2008 in San Francisco, CA.  The conference will provide information on:

• Incorporating new laws and trends into business strategies to ensure successful and lucrative collaborations.
• Negotiating and drafting favorable exclusivity and termination provisions.
• Protecting rights relating to future developments and improvements.
• Evaluating viable deal and compensation structures.
• Minimizing risks through effective due diligence.
• Ensuring effective alliance management through workable governance processes.
• Anticipating the potential impact of merger and acquisition activity on your intellectual property and collaboration strategies.
• Negotiating hotly contested issues with universities and collaborating effectively with government agencies and nonprofits.
• Avoding the top pitfalls of international deals.

In particular, ACI's faculty will offer presentations on the following topics:

• Factoring emerging trends in biotech/pharma collaborations into your dealmaking strategy.
• Negotiating exclusivity, rights to improvements and other critical terms to maximize profits and protect intellectual property.
• Selecting the most viable and profitable compensation structure.
• Incorporating international business strategies into collaborative agreements.
• Minimizing business and intellectual property risks through effective due diligence.
• Limiting the potential for litigation:  Best drafting practices after MedImmune.
• Alliance management:  Establishing governance structures for a successful collaboration.
• Successfully negotiating collaborative research agreements with academic institutions.
• Accessing government technologies and working with nonprofits in the global health field.
• Addressing the critical importance of termination provisions.
• Doing the deal in reverse:  Overcoming challenges in negotiating out licensing by pharma.
• Negotiating agreements in light of the recent surge of merger and acquisition activity.

An additional master class entitled: "The “Win-Win” Collaborative Agreement: Practical and Ethical Negotiating and Drafting Strategies" will be offered on May 2, 2008.  The master class will walk conference attendees through the key aspects of negotiating and drafting that are essential to successful agreements, use actual deals and hypothetical examples to demonstrate how to negotiate terms and draft clauses that anticipate and adapt to change and accommodate competing interests, and address ethical questions that arise during such negotiations.

The agenda for the Pharma/Biotech Collaborative Agreements conference can be found here.  A complete brochure for this conference, including an agenda, list of speakers, and registration form can be downloaded here.

The registration fee ranges from $2,195 (conference alone) to $2,795 (conference and master class).  Those registering on or before February 29, 2008 will receive a $300 discount off the registration fee and those registering on or before April 4, 2008 will receive a $200 discount off the registration fee.  Those interested in registering for the conference can do so here, by calling 1-888-224-2480, or by faxing a registration form to 1-877-927-1563.