Dr. Kenneth Bertram, Dr. Patricia Reilly and Ms. Dawn Rosarius of the Office of the Principal Assistant for Acquisition at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command met one-on-one with over 35 potential partners at the 2016 BIO-Europe conference in Cologne, Germany, Nov. 7-9.

"Our focus at BIO-Europe," explained Dr. Bertram "is to identify innovative medical products that have the potential to fill existing Warfighter capability gaps."

Potential products ranged from a biologic therapy for muscle regeneration, which has shown proof of concept in large animals, to commercially available items that have the potential to fill existing manufacturing gaps. In addition, Bertram gave a well-attended presentation on partnership opportunities (focusing on infectious diseases) with the U.S. Army and the needs of the USAMRMC in relation to finding manufacturing partners. This year's meeting hosted more than 3,600 attendees from 1,900 companies in over 60 countries. Delegates took part in more than 20,000 one-on-one meetings and conducted over 150 company presentations.

Follow-up with contacts from the 2015 BIO-Europe meeting resulted in multiple collaborative agreements on medical products with the potential to further the USAMRMC mission.