At this year’s seventh Regional BioCamp, young scientists to research challenges and opportunities for immunotherapy treatment

  • Lek is organising the seventh consecutive Regional BioCamp. The forum enables selected young life-science students to gain insight into the business environment of the pharmaceutical industry and cooperation with key experts and leading managers. 
  • This year, more than 115 students from more than 20 different universities and eleven different countries applied to participate at the forum. Among them, 35 best students were selected.
  • The theme of this year’s Regional BioCamp is ‘Challenges and Opportunities of Immunotherapy Treatment’. This is a particularly topical theme, as immunotherapy has recently become an established novel approach in cancer treatment. 
22. 5. 2017

At this year’s seventh consecutive Regional BioCamp, organised from May 21 to 23 by Lek, the selected life-science students will, together with lecturers and mentors, research new challenges and opportunities for immunotherapy treatment. The latter has recently become an established novel approach in cancer treatment and represents, according to some experts, the most promising advancement in the ever-lasting battle against this insidious disease.

For the selected life-science students, the Regional BioCamp represents a unique opportunity to enrich their knowledge and gain new experience and contacts. At this three-day forum, young talents will at the same time gain a direct insight into the pharmaceutical industry and interact with key experts and managers.

Darja Fečerj Temeljotov, the Chair Organizing Committee, emphasized the importance of the event: »The Regional BioCamp, organised by Lek for the seventh consecutive year, is a unique opportunity for students to gain insight into the professional and business environment of the global pharmaceutical industry. It shows them opportunities for career development, enables them to interact with key professionals from Novartis, Sandoz and Lek and network with other talented students from different countries. Through the BioCamp we also demonstrate our openness to breakthrough ideas, positive energy and ambitions of young people. We support diversity and inclusion, therefore we bring together and connect in one place young scientists from different backgrounds.«

Regional BioCamp brings together academia and business

Among more than 115 applications that arrived this year, 35 best applicants were selected from 9 different countries, including Germany, Italy, Poland, Austria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. 

Young scientists will learn about topics including:

  • New developments in the generic pharmaceutical industry and biosimilars;
  • Worldwide experience in biosimilars development;
  • Immunotherapy - new treatment approaches;
  • Patient views on treatment opportunities;
  • Career opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry;
  • Starting and running a company; 
  • Students’ workshop: How to develop and launch a biopharmaceutical product.

Some of the top experts from their related fields will pass on their many years of experience and extensive knowledge to the young scientists at the Regional BioCamp 2017 in Ljubljana, among them:

  • Shawn Lee Silvestri, PhD, Head Global Product Development, Sandoz
  • Nick Warwick, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, Global Product Development Management, Sandoz
  • Dominik Gaser, PhD, Head Cell & Molecular Biology, Technical Development Biosimilars, Novartis
  • Thomas Calzascia, PhD, Senior Investigator, Autoimmunity, Transplantation and Inflammation department, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research
  • Prof. Simon Horvat, PhD, Professor at the Biotechnical Faculty at the Ljubljana University and a researcher at the National Chemistry Institute 
  • Prof. Stanislav Gobec, PhD, Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Ljubljana University 
  • Prof. Tanja Čufer, MD, PhD, Professor at the Medical Faculty at the Ljubljana University and a researcher at the Golnik University Clinic 
  • Piotr Czerkies, PhD, CEE Medical Franchise Manager, Novartis
  • Matevž Kmet, PhD, Head of business development, Acies Bio d.o.o.
  • Associate Prof Zdenko Časar, PhD, Head Prototype Analytics at the Sandoz Development Center Slovenia.

An important part of the forum is also a case study that the students tackle in teams showing their way of thinking, innovation skills and ability in constructive teamwork. The expert panel then selects the winning team that best translates the newly acquired knowledge and ideas into the language of business. Amongst all participating students, three best performing individuals are also selected. Thirteen winners of the past six Regional BioCamps have already joined the best students from universities around the world at the global Novartis BioCamp in Basel. Among the participants from Slovenia we can boast three winners at the global level – they are Ljerka Lah, Janko Ignjatović and Ognen Jakasanovski. 

Forum opens new opportunities for your talents

Over seven years, as many as 245 top life-science students, studying in as many as seventeen different countries at almost 70 faculties and institutes have participated in the project. Among them, we employed more than 25 in different areas of development and quality control at Lek, which opens opportunities for further career development in one of the leading global pharmaceutical companies.

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Lek, a Sandoz company, is one of the key pillars of the second-largest generic pharmaceutical company globally. Its role within Sandoz is to act as: a leading global development center for technologically demanding products and technologies; a key global manufacturing center for active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines; a competence center for the development of vertically integrated products; a Sandoz competence center in the field of development and manufacturing of biosimilar active ingredients and products; a supply center for the markets of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), South East Europe (SEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and is responsible for marketing and sales of Sandoz products on the Slovenian market. For further information, please visit www.lek.si.

Sandoz is a global leader in generic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals. As a division of the Novartis Group, our purpose is to discover new ways to improve and extend people’s lives. We contribute to society’s ability to support growing healthcare needs by pioneering novel approaches to help people around the world access high-quality medicine. Our portfolio of approximately 1000 molecules, covering all major therapeutic areas, accounted for 2016 sales of USD 10.1 billion. In 2016, our products reached more than 500 million patients and we aspire to reach one billion. Sandoz is headquartered in Holzkirchen, in Germany’s Greater Munich area.
Sandoz is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Sandoz_global at http://twitter.com/Sandoz_Global (link is external).

Novartis provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, cost-saving generic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals and eye care. Novartis has leading positions globally in each of these areas. In 2016, the Group achieved net sales of USD 48.5 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.0 billion. Novartis Group companies employ approximately 118,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are sold in approximately 155 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

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This press release contains statements and conclusions based on projections of Lek’s future business operations. These estimates are derived from the best information currently available. In case these forecasts prove unreliable, the actual results could prove different from those projected.

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For additional information contact:
Katarina Klemenc
Corporate Communications 
Lek Pharmaceuticals d. d.
Phone: +386 1 580 22 43
Fax: +386 1 580 24 32
katarina.klemenc@sandoz.com