California biotechnology companies are looking across the Atlantic Ocean to help fuel growth by collaborating with large European pharmaceutical firms. Fifteen California biotech companies participated in an April trade mission to Lyon, France, which they say could produce partnership deals worth as much as $400 million in two years or more.

Some deals could happen this year. Others might take more time to develop. But the bottom line is that small and midsize California biotech companies made dozens of contacts with giants such as AstraZeneca, Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline that could lead to contracts and create jobs.

"They are looking to California and other biotech startups for new technologies, mostly for new drugs," said Jennifer Juo, trade manager of the ACET high-tech incubator in Alameda. "California is the leader for biotech. People were very open to meeting with us."

Amid a dim market for venture-capital funding and initial public offerings, biotech partnerships have been a bright spot, valued at $7.5 billion in 2002, according to Burrill & Co. The number of deals between big pharmaceutical and biotech firms fell only 3 percent last year from the peak of 425 in 2001.

ACET, the Bay Area World Trade Center and state Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency organized the California biotech trade mission to tap into global demand for partnerships.

The state's delegation included six Northern California firms and nine from Southern California. Delegates averaged 18 one-on-one meetings at France's three-day BioSquare conference and attended additional networking events.

"It was a good venue, a good turnout, very well-organized," said Joseph Fisher, senior manager for business development for Raven Biotechnologies of South San Francisco. "I would definitely go back next year."

Privately owned Raven, a 50-employee firm founded in 1999, is developing monoclonal antibody products to make drugs to treat colon, ovarian, prostate and other cancers. Raven is still in pre-clinical stages -- it could take at least five years to get drugs to market -- but it has raised $65 million and wants to partner with major European and U.S. pharmaceutical companies.

The trade mission could help generate several deals by the end of 2003 worth $10 million to $20 million in upfront payments, Fisher said. "Over time that could be hundreds of millions of dollars," he said. "Sometimes they call them biodollars."

It costs a lot to develop drugs. Smaller companies rely on bigger ones to help fund later stages of drug development as well as manufacturing and marketing, sharing long-term profits as a tradeoff. Meanwhile, big companies are looking for new drugs and technologies so they can keep growing.

"It's a very global business," Fisher said. "There are a lot of major European pharmaceutical companies. You've got to go there."

Target Discovery Chief Executive Jeff Peterson spent about $2,000 -- a $1,500 discount -- to participate in the California biotech trade mission, which he said could help lead to deals in a couple of years.

"We really got a lot of bang for the buck," Peterson said. "For early-stage companies like us -- offering prospects of providing a lot of employment downstream -- this kind of support is absolutely critical."

Founded in 1997, Target Discovery is an 11-employee Palo Alto firm that has developed six platform technologies with applications from agriculture to drug discovery. Target has raised $7 million from private investors and is looking for partners in Europe and Asia.

California biotech companies have to be prepared if they want to partner with European firms, Peterson said. "It's not hard to get people in the life sciences to listen to and examine exciting technologies," he said. "But there's a higher burden of proof."

The California biotech trade mission was part of the European Export Initiative, a $1.2 million program launched in December 2001, including a $400,000 U.S. Commerce Department grant. The initiative, meant to boost exports to Europe from small and medium California environmental and biotech companies, sponsored an environmental trade mission in January to France.

Two more trade missions are planned this fall to Germany -- the Biotechnica trade show Oct. 7-9 and the BioEurope partnering conference Nov. 17-19.

"We think it's the way some of the small and mid-size biotech companies can identify key contacts in Europe and make significant headway in a quicker manner than were they to act on their own," said Michael Chapnick, a vice president with the Bay Area World Trade Center.