The 2015 edition of ChinaBio Partnering Forum, China's premier life science partnering event, will be held April 22–23 in Shanghai. Shanghai is the largest city proper in the world and home to over 1,000 life science companies.

In 2014, the Forum was attended by 848 delegates from 425 companies and 25 countries, making it the largest partnering conference in China. Pharma and biotech companies as well as leading researchers from China's top universities and institutes consider it a key event for establishing a presence in China's rapidly growing healthcare sector.

"China is now the world's second largest healthcare market and is on track to be the largest by the year 2020," said Greg B. Scott, Founder of ChinaBio Group. "Shanghai is the heart of China's pharma and biotech industry, with many of the leading multinational and domestic companies located here. This makes Shanghai the perfect place for these companies to meet and to forge new partnerships to meet the rapidly growing demand for novel healthcare products in China."

"ChinaBio Partnering Forum continues to grow each year, and we continue to hear from pharma companies that this is an extremely valuable event for them," said Anna Chrisman, Group managing director, EBD Group. "International life science companies want to have a presence in China, and this event enables them to attend company presentations and engage in one-to-one meetings with potential partners in order to achieve their business goals."

In previous ChinaBio Partnering Forums, 35 per cent of the attendees were C-level executives with 65 per cent from China, giving western life science companies unparalleled access to local decision makers and investors. This has helped generate a number of cross-border partnerships in China. In 2013 alone, there were 135 partnerships with China companies generating well over USD 1.6 billion in deal value.

"There are many opportunities for market access and revenue growth in China," said Steve Yang, EVP &COO, WuXi AppTec. "The rise of the middle-class in China and demand for increased access to and the expectation of high-quality public healthcare are compelling reasons to partner in China. [We] consider China to be a major growth market."

Innovative companies, organisations and researchers interested in partnering their technologies or products, initiating strategic alliances, or tapping into the financing network may also present at the event by applying online.

Attendees who register before March 6, 2015 will save USD 200 off the regular registration fee. There is also a reduced registration fee for China-based organisations.

partneringONE is EBD Group's sophisticated, web-based partnering system that enables event delegates to efficiently identify, meet and get partnerships started with companies across the life science value chain, from large biotech and pharma companies to financiers and innovative start-ups.