Achievements for the Ambassador Programme in 2007

The year 2007 was an exciting year for the Medicon Valley Life Science Ambassador Programme and a period of heavy activity in MVA. In order to build the most relevant programme for the Medicon Valley community, our International Relations Director, Andrew Munk,  has spent a great deal of his time consulting with the life science community to gauge their needs and concerns for the growth and development of the region. These consultations have included both small and large companies as well as universities and hospitals in both Sweden and Denmark.

Financial Support and a Strong Backing Group

The work has paid back with great accomplishments. We have signed Ambassador Exchange Agreements with the Kobe-Kansai cluster in Japan and the Vancouver cluster in Canada and an agreement with Beijing is pending. We have secured financing from the Capital Region of Denmark as well as Region Zealand and in near future Region Skåne is expected to join the programme. Private companies in Medicon Valley have joined forces with MVA by contributing millions of kroners to help fund the programme. Finally, we are very proud and privileged to have gathered together a strong Ambassador Programme Backing Group. The backing group has been established to act as advisors to MVA with regards to the structure, funding and functioning of the Ambassador Programme, and consists of:

• Daniel Spasic, Chief Executive Officer, TFS Trial Form Support AB, Sweden
• Jørgen Christensen, Chairman of Growth Forum, Capital Region of Denmark, Denmark
• Kresten Ebbensgaard, Chairman of Growth Forum, Region Zealand, Denmark
• Paul Coleman, VP International Government Relations, Biogen-Idec, USA
• Pia Kinhult, Regional Commissioner, Region Skåne, Sweden
• Steen Donner, Managing Director, Copenhagen Capacity, Denmark
• Sven Andréasson, President & Chief Executive Officer, Active Biotech AB, Sweden
• Thomas Nagy, Executive Vice President, Stakeholder Relations, Novozymes, Denmark

We thank the financial contributors and the backing group for their support to the Ambassador Programme.

The First Ambassador in Place at MVA by 1 March

The increasing level of international activity at MVA will be clearly visible on 1 March 2008 with the arrival Dr. Takashi Asada from Kobe-Kansai, Japan. He will work in our offices for a period of two years. We encourage all MVA members to contact Dr. Asada to explore the opportunities that exist in Kobe-Kansai and other regions of Japan, be they commercial or academic. The arrival of the Ambassador from Vancouver is expected in the second half of 2008 with more to follow soon after. Furthermore, we are also very excited to announce that we are currently recruiting our first Medicon Valley Ambassador to be stationed in Japan and hope to hire two more Medicon Valley Ambassadors before the end of 2008.

Make Use of the Opportunities

The Ambassador Programme provides unique opportunities to all MVA members to strengthen their international network. The Ambassadors will be able to help build and identify valuable contacts within many different areas including university research, exchanges of researchers and students, business to business agreements, investment opportunities, in- and outsourcing opportunities etc. 2008 will be a year to discover new opportunities not only in Medicon Valley, but also in our partner regions abroad.

We look forward to have you accompany us on this challenging adventure.

Kind regards,

Stig Jørgensen

Managing Director

Medicon Valley Alliance