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It’s official: The 2023 BIO International Convention is open!
The four-day event includes 150 sessions featuring 800 speakers.
An incredible lineup of experts will be sharing their views and knowledge—and if you’re not attending, you can keep up to date with all that’s going on right here at Bio.News. Our team will bring you around-the-clock coverage of sessions, exclusive video, and Q&As.
Boston puts life sciences front and center
On Monday, June 5, proceedings kicked off with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announcing the launch of the Boston Life Sciences Workforce Initiative. The goal is to connect 1,000 Boston-area residents with life sciences careers by 2025.
Boston has everything needed to “once more revolutionize the world,” she said at the press conference ahead of the official convention opening. Boston is “the best place in the world to start and grow a life sciences company.”
“The regional life sciences industry will need thousands of new workers,” she continued. With $4 million in funding for programs including internships and hiring commitments and training, including opportunities for residents without four-year degrees, the initiative will “bring opportunities directly into our communities,” she said.
She called the life sciences sector the “glue” that holds other sectors together.
She was joined at the press conference by Massachusetts Secretary of Labor Lauren Jones, representatives from Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) member Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and other state and local government officials and partners in the initiative.
3 tips for the BIO International Convention
To help you along, BIO CEO Rachel King has given us her three top tips to make the most of convention week.
Here are some of Monday’s must-see events:
Diversity in clinical trials
This has become a hot topic with the pressure being put on pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to ensure adequate numbers of under-represented racial and ethnic populations are present in clinical trials of new drugs.
BIO’s Rachel King and Zach Stanley, Executive Director of Biodiversity at MassBio, published an op-ed in the Boston Business Journal highlighting the growth of the biotech sector—and the need for workforce training and diversity initiatives to keep it going.
Are we ready for the next pandemic?
It’s scary to think about another pandemic so soon, but preparedness is key. According to a recent BIO/Healthcare Ready survey, a “majority of American voters want Congress to prioritize and fund public health preparedness.”
Asha George, DrPH, Executive Director at Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, moderates this panel with a number of speakers including Pierre Delsaux, Director General for the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), at the European Commission.
Artificial intelligence: friend or foe?
With so much talk about what AI can do, it can be overwhelming. But far from writing school essays and e-mails, this panel will discuss how AI can take on challenges in healthcare. Could it help cure cancer or predict Alzheimer’s?
Science writer and best-selling author, David Duncan, hosts the panel, which will feature Seema Kumar, CEO of Cure, and Rick A. Bright, PhD, former CEO of the Pandemic Prevention Institute of the Rockefeller Foundation and former Director of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
