December 12, 2001 — WASHINGTON — The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) has selected Chicago, Illinois, as the site of the BIO 2006 International Biotechnology Convention & Exhibition. This annual event has grown more than seven-fold since BIO was created in 1993.

Chicago is the urban heart of a Midwestern region that is home to a growing number of biotech startups in addition to some of the world’s largest biotech-oriented agricultural, pharmaceutical and industrial companies.

“In addition to its obvious strength in agricultural biotechnology, the Midwest boasts a thriving biopharmaceutical industry as well. The region is home to an established cadre of multinational pharmaceutical companies and a growing a band of small biotech companies,” said BIO President Carl B. Feldbaum. “A group of world-class academic research institutions help to fuel these enterprises with basic research, as does accessibility to other research strongholds, including those in Europe and Asia.”

BIO’s annual convention will be held in Toronto in 2002; Washington, D.C., in 2003; San Francisco in 2004; and Philadelphia in 2005. Each year, the convention features more than 100 panel sessions, eminent plenary speakers (such as Francis S. Collins and J. Craig Venter at BIO 2001), and hundreds of exhibits and company presentations.

BIO represents more than 1,000 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations in all 50 U.S. states and 33 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of health-care, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products.