MEDICAL : Biotechnology, Venture Capital Firms Will Meet at Conference in Newport

Up-and-coming biotechnology companies with fresh ideas often need white knights with money, while venture capital firms and established health care manufacturers are forever searching for new products and technologies to sponsor or acquire.

So they are coming from all over the nation to Newport Beach next week to obtain help from a matchmaker at the two-day Emerging Medical Technologies Conference.

Sponsored by Biomedical Business International, a Tustin-based firm that provides market reports, newsletters and research services to health care manufacturers, the conference at the Four Seasons Hotel will feature presentations by 50 start-up firms in the biotechnology field.

Among the speakers will be representatives of five Orange County companies: Retroperfusions Systems, a catheter manufacturing firm, and Osmed Inc., a manufacturer of biodegradable dressings and implants, both based in Costa Mesa; Basic Biosystems, a developer of time-release drug delivery systems, and Oncotech, a laboratory service that helps select the best therapy for cancer patients, both in Irvine; and Nouvas Biomedical Automation, an Orange-based designer and maker of machinery to manufacture medical devices.

Taking stock of what these new research and development firms have to offer will be officials from venture capital firms, manufacturers’ distributors and strategic planners for major pharmaceutical firms such as Baxter Health Care Corp., Abbott Laboratories and Becton Dickinson.

In all, about 300 persons are expected to pay an admission fee of $895 to participate. The conference starts Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. and ends Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.