From June 18 to 21, 2012 the world’s largest biotechnology expo will take place in Boston – the BIO International Convention. The states of Berlin and Brandenburg will be on display again this year as part of a joint booth featuring seven companies and institutions, including Bayer HealthCare, the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications (the Heinrich Hertz Institute) and celares GmbH. Berlin Partner GmbH will organize and staff the booth, along with the BioTOP Initiative, which is part of the TSB Innovation Agency Berlin GmbH.
215 biotech companies (with roughly 4,000 employees) and nearly 30 pharmaceutical companies (staffing approximately 10,000) are located in the German capital region. These include globally significant enterprises like Bayer HealthCare, Bausch & Lomb, B. Braun Melsungen, Berlin-Chemie and Sanofi-Aventis. Furthermore, at the start of 2012, Takeda Pharma announced that it was relocating its German headquarters to Berlin and will create roughly 100 jobs here.
They profit, as do the many small and medium-sized enterprises, from the close cooperation with science on one hand and the users in the more than 130 clinics on the other – most of all, with the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, one of Europe’s largest university hospitals. At present, approximately 360,000 employees in the healthcare industries create a gross added value of roughly 16 billion euros in Berlin-Brandenburg.
Dr. Kai Bindseil, BioTOP Berlin-Brandenburg Director and Cluster Manager for HealthCapital:
<p class="Bodytext">“In particular biotechnology is a decisive motor for innovation and growth in the healthcare industries in Berlin-Brandenburg and beyond – especially where pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and medical technology intersect. For this reason, Berlin-Brandenburg is naturally taking part at this year’s BIO Convention. Our expo booth offers ample space for greeting the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals world and functions as the ideal starting point for international contacts, interactions and presentations.”</p>
<p class="Bodytext">Melanie Bähr, Managing Director for Berlin Partner GmbH:</p>
<p class="Bodytext">“The Berlin-Brandenburg region is one of the leading locations for life sciences and the healthcare industries internationally. The region’s strengths lie, most of all, in the unique landscape of research and clinics and in the intense networking of players from research, clinics and industry. Last but not least, seven biotech parks create excellent infrastructure for the transfer of the newest scientific discoveries in innovative products.”</p>