Live Blogging from the RMLSIC

UPDATE (Breakfast) - Roy Davis, VP Corporate Development at Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and President JNJ Development Corporation opened the first full day of the RMLIC. He focused on “Creating New Business Opportunities at Johnson & Johnson” and stressed how a targeted focus on fostering innovation outside the entity (in addition to internal development) is in place which may ultimately benefit JNJ. Highlighting current P&L and capital stresses faced by the earliest start-up to the behemoth large-cap big pharma and associated headwinds in the current economic climate have increased the challenge to manage business for the long term. Red Script Ventures was founded by JNJ Dev Corp in part to help address the challenges of making the leap from not the incremental technological progression but to larger replacement technological leaps. Historically JNJ would participate in investing at the B round or later. Today Red Scrip Ventures participates in early-stage equity investing and provides value-add business acceleration and incubation services via leveraging access to the significant resources available throughout the entire JNJ enterprise. One caveat, and an obviously understandable one, Red Script must be the only strategic investor participating in a particular deal. Off to the first round of presentations…I’ve selected the Dx track.

Laptop…check, wifi…check, Conference pass…check! CLSDF is primed to live blog the 2009 Rocky Mountain Life Science Investor Conference coming to you from the Ritz-Carlton Denver in the Mile High City. Check back throughout the day for updates, likewise I’ve embedded my twitter-feed below, as certain ‘tweets’ may be more timely and serve as a good backup if the wifi is disrupted (or follow along at http://twitter.com/arubenstein). Note that I will be updating the embedded picture album below throughout the day as well. If you are reading this post in an email or RSS feed be certain to visit http://CLSDF.com to observe the updates.

The Conference got off to a delightful start at the Governor’s Residence at Boettcher Mansion, well technically our group was directed to the on premises ‘Carriage House’, simply lovely nonetheless. A few opening remarks by CBSA President John Collar before hearing a brief history of the Colorado life science ecosystem from Morgenthaler Ventures Partner Chris Christoffersen. Then it was off to the Cotes du Rhone, delectable tapas and some serious elbow rubbing.

Next up i. breakfast speaker and ii. the first group of presenting companies. Stay tuned…