At the 4^th ChinaBio® Investor Forum, held in Beijing on December 11 and 12, 2008, two companies received the prestigious "Most Promising Company" award.  Selected by a panel of venture capitalists actively investing in the China biotech industry, Fountain Medical Development Ltd. won the award in the services category, and ProteLight Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Co., Ltd won the drug development category.

Fountain Medical Development is one of only a handful of clinical contract research organizations (CROs) in China that has demonstrated global clinical trial experience.  Founded in October 2006 by Dan Zhang, MD, former head of Quintiles' China operations, Fountain has established facilities in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and New Jersey.  Fountain was funded by DFJ Dragon and Tianjin Venture Capital. 

ProteLight Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology, based in Changchun, China, co-presented with their US collaboration partner, BioAMPs International LLC, of Denver, Colorado.  Together, the two companies own the worldwide rights to a proprietary antimicrobial peptide for the treatment of systemic infectious disease, especially drug-resistant varieties.  Presenters were Jason Chen, PhD, President and CEO of ProteLight and David DeLong, CEO of BioAMPs.  The companies plan to leverage development in China to reduce the costs and time required to reach the market.

"It was a difficult choice, as all of the presenting companies were excellent," said Greg Scott, founder and President of ChinaBio® Accelerator, the organizer of the Investor Forum, "but Fountain and ProteLight stood out above all the others in their respective categories." 

The presentation of the awards was made by Dr. Jifu Liu, a partner with Unitalen, one of China's leading IP firms, with over 400 patent attorneys in offices throughout China, including Beijing and Shanghai. 

Prior presenting companies, Chiral Quest Inc. and Crown Bioscience, also participated on a panel at the event that featured their investing VCs, including Hambrecht Suma.  Both companies were funded after they presented at the 1st ChinaBio® Investor Forum held in Shanghai in December 2007, and Chiral Quest had won the "Most Promising" award in the services category at that event.

The ChinaBio® Investor Forum 2008 - Beijing was ChinaBio's 4th investor forum held in China, and its first in Beijing.  Twenty companies presented to an audience of over 180 attendees, including 50 VCs.  VC Partners included Sofinnova, Lilly Ventures, HBM BioMed, Morningside, Qiming, Fidelity, and DFJ Dragon among others.  The event was hosted by the Zhongguancun Life Science Park.

ChinaBio®'s next Investor Forum will be held in Hong Kong on March 19-20, 2009, hosted by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park.  ChinaBio® also announced that its first Partnering Forum will be held in Shanghai on June 3-4, 2009.

Disclosure: None.