Atlanta biotech leaders featured at UGA entrepreneurship events

Athens, Ga. – Atlanta entrepreneurs will address venture capital funding opportunities for biotech startups and the fast-growing field of glycomics during Entrepreneurial Week, March 22-29, at the University of Georgia.
Entrepreneurial Week is part of Thinc. at UGA, a new initiative that brings together entrepreneurship experts from industry and academia with faculty, alumni, students and members of the local community in Athens and across the state. The weeklong celebration includes lectures, workshops, panel discussions, competitions and networking events that promise to engage, inspire and build the confidence that will help take business ideas from concepts to reality.
Tues., March 26, 8:30-10 a.m.: Following a short reception, Ed Schutter, CEO of Arbor Pharmaceuticals, will deliver “Angels, Ventures and Cliffs: A Tale of Biotech Funding.” His presentation will focus on the funding landscape in and outside of Georgia. Schutter will share insights on how to prepare and pursue venture funding and will share case examples from his experience in securing funds for biotech startups. This presentation will benefit anyone looking for an overview of funding opportunities. The event will be held in Room 128 of the Center for Applied Genetic Technologies, located on the UGA Athens campus at 111 Riverbend Road.
Schutter and two other investors acquired Arbor Pharmaceuticals, a small Raleigh, N.C., company earning about $2 million in annual sales, in April 2010. Since then, Schutter and his team have transformed Arbor into a $200 million company with 14 marketed products and 28 products in development. Prior to Arbor, Schutter served as president and chief operating officer of Sciele Pharmaceuticals and vice president of global business development at Solvay Pharmaceuticals based in Basel, Switzerland. He also helped start the predecessor company to what later became Ventrus Biosciences, a publicly listed biopharmaceutical company. Schutter began his pharmaceutical career with Reid-Provident Labs, a small entrepreneurial pharmaceutical company based in Atlanta. The management team at that company went on to start approximately a dozen pharmaceutical companies. Schutter has a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Mercer University and an MBA from Kennesaw State University.
Wed., March 27, 3:30-5 p.m.: Dr. Peter Traber, president and CEO of Galectin Therapeutics, will join Rob Woods and Parastoo Azadi of the University of Georgia’s Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and Richard Cummings of Emory University’s Glycomics Center in a panel discussion, “Sweet Science: Glycobiology and Business in Georgia.” The event will be held at the CCRC in Athens, located at 315 Riverbend Road.
Recently, Galectin Therapeutics, the leading developer of therapeutics that target galectin proteins to treat fibrosis and cancer, announced the establishment of a collaborative drug discovery program with Geert-Jan Boons, carbohydrate chemist at the CCRC. Both the CCRC and Emory Glycomics Center have had successful interactions with industry through research services, direct technology licensing and startup company formation. The rate of technology transfer is expected to grow as the field of glycomics matures and finds new applications in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to biofuels. The panelists will discuss the recently launched glycomics-based companies in Georgia and future opportunities for leveraging the state’s unique resources in the field to create the next generation of life science companies.
The panel discussion will be followed by a guided tour of the CCRC and a reception in the Georgia BioBusiness Center, which will showcase resident and startup companies associated with the UGA business incubator.
Register in advance to attend these events. See the complete list of Entrepreneurial Week events at http://thinc.uga.edu/.