MEDICON VALLEY ACADEMY FOR CHRISTMAS 2004
Dear members and friends of Medicon Valley Academy
With only a week left of 2004 we can look back on a year filled with activities in Medicon Valley.
Our most important topic during 2004 was Innovation. A group from the Medicon Valley Academy (MVA) board led by the Vice chairman, Mikael Ørum, held meetings with regional organisations to scrutinize research based university innovation from an Øresund perspective. The MVA Annual Meeting in March included a session where technology transfer was discussed from the view of the entrepreneurial university professor, the patent specialist and two biotech companies. After incorporating new national reports from Sweden and Denmark, which were published in June, the final strategic report - From Bioscience to New Jobs in Medicon Valley - was launched in October.
Since then, the report has been discussed with politicians and decision makers in Denmark and Sweden, and has been distributed to all MVA members.
The MVA proposal that governmental funds should be able to invest across Øresund was commented as being on their list of needs by Swedish Industrifonden, while the new Danish Entrepreneurial fund (Iværksætterfonden) was born in November with the permission to invest 25% in Skåne! Cooperation between technology transfer offices is another MVA recommendation. Again Industrifonden seemed to agree, as their CEO recently called Lund’s innovation system “messy”. Only two weeks ago, the new Swedish Minister of Industry (and former Minister of Research), Thomas Östros, talked about cooperation between holding companies and foresaw regional cooperations within specific scientific fields. MVA will continue its efforts to make the innovation systems on each side of Øresund start cooperating, at the very least within our area of interest; bio/medicine/technology.
The UK-Medicon Valley Challenge Programme was launched by the UK Minister for Science and Innovation, Lord Sainsbury, during the opening of the BioTech Forum Science Conference in October. In conjunction with this, The UK Embassy in Copenhagen arranged UK-Medicon Valley meetings on Cancer and Nanotechnology with participation from scientists and companies from Greater Copenhagen and Skåne, many more will follow in 2005.
MVA also published the Medicon Valley Financing Guide including profiles on 75 national and international investors. The aim of the guide is to improve the ability of biotech and medtech companies in Medicon Valley to identify and approach potential investors, thereby increasing their chances of attracting national and international venture capital. MVA has focused particularly on international venture capital, the importance of which is becoming clear to an increasing proportion of companies in Medicon Valley.
During 2004, MVA organised more than 30 networking meetings in Copenhagen, Lund and Malmö.
The MVA Business Academy dealt with US collaborations, Financing biotech, Standard Operating Procedures, Efficient handling of intellectual properties (with Deloitte), and New start-up companies.
The Human Resources Network met to discuss Regional barriers and possibilities, Terms of employment in Denmark and Sweden, and Salaries, pensions and insurances. There were also three very popular full-day meetings on Job opportunities in Medicon Valley. We believe that the job meetings and the job ads on MVA’s website contribute to the increasing exchange of competent biotech/medtech scientists across Øresund.
The Drug Development Network worked on Complex end points of clinical testing, Drug formulation in relation to clinical trial outcomes, New medicine approvals in the EU, Innovative formulations (with the Swedish Institute of Surface Chemistry), and a special session on repurposing of drugs at the BioTech Forum Science Conference.
The Biostatistics Network continued their regular meetings and held regional courses on Statistical computing with R, and Modern case control methods.
Two Bio+IT Post Doc programme meetings were held in collaboration with Øresund IT Academy, in addition to three separate sessions at the BioTech Forum Science Conference. The intelligent hospital session at the BioTech Forum was also a cooperation with Øresund IT Academy, and co-chaired by MVA’s former CEO, Bent Christensen, who left in August to manage Lund University Hospital.
Other general meetings included Information on the EU Sixth Framework Programme and Security Intelligence for biotech scientists (in collaboration with Swedish SÄPO).
Food versus Drugs was a very popular full-day session at BioTech Forum Science Conference, and the theme was continued with a seminar on Enriched foods and food supplements, in cooperation with Øresund Food Network. A series of meetings will follow in the spring of 2005. We see a lot of sense in combining experience from the ongoing VINNVÄXT project on functional food in Skåne (SEK 20 million/year for 10 years) with recently proposed initiatives on healthy food in Denmark, with the expectation that healthy food will become increasingly more important in the prevention of disease.
The Medicon Valley exhibition stand at BioTech Forum worked as the meeting place for regional exhibitors, including universities, science parks and companies, and external visitors. MVA also joined the Medicon Valley exhibition at BIO 2004 in San Francisco together with Copenhagen Capacity and Position Skåne.
The Annual meeting on Cancer research was arranged in collaboration with the Danish Association for Cancer Research. And the first MVA Journalist Seminar was also focused on cancer research.
For 2005, we will continue with two strategic MVA reports on Research and Hospitals, respectively. We will also implement the UK-Medicon Valley initiative. We will increase the number of networks, the two newest being MV-HUG (Medicon Valley-Hepatocyte Users Group) and a Mass Spectrometry network, but we will also revitalise the Diabetes network and strengthen links between existing networks, for example connecting the Danish and newly formed South Swedish Associations for Cancer Research.
In addition, we plan to cooperate more with the Øresund Science Region and the platforms Øresund IT Academy, Øresund Food Network and Øresund Environment Academy. Such cooperation is facilitated by our Danish organisations being located together in Ørestad City - at Arne Jacobsens Allé 17, from January 2005. The new office is close to the bridge and it will be easy and quick to reach us from Greater Copenhagen as well as from Skåne, and it will be very convenient for UK and other international visitors arriving at the nearby Kastrup Airport. More about this in the new year, when you will be invited to visit the new premises.
Before ending, let me just tell that we will start 2005 with about 50 new members of Medicon Valley Academy. Some are large organisations while others are new start-up companies with only a few persons employed. You are all very welcome! We will do our best, and hope that you will take part and put pressure on us to meet your expectations in working to make Medicon Valley one of the most dynamic and successful bioregions in the world!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Stina Gestrelius, Acting CEO, and co-workers at Medicon Valley Academy
PRELIMINARY ACTIVITIES 2005
# 27 January: Human resource network meeting - What can the Swedish and Danish Employment Services offer your organisation?
# 3 February: Food versus drugs workshop / in collaboration with Øresund Food Network
# 8 February: Career options in Bioscience / in collaboration with Future Faculty, Lund University
# 9 February: Small Talk on Big Issues - Nanoscience & Nanotechnologies - risks and opportunities / in collaboration with The British Embassies in Sweden and Denmark, the Biomedical Centre of Lund University, Nordiska Forskningsnätet, Pronano AB and the association Vetenskap och Allmänhet
# Medio February: A Unique Interactive One Day Seminar Focus on challenges in the Scientific and Business Management of Early Clinical Development - "From Pre-Clinical Projects to Licensing" / in collaboration with Parexel
# March: Drug development network meeting - Insurance of clinical trials / in collaboration with Chubb Insurance Company of Europe
# 7-9 March: Clinical trial simulation in drug development / Course for biostatisticians and pharmacokinetists
# 16 March: Food versus drugs workshop / in collaboration with Øresund Food Network
# 30 March: MVA Annual Meeting and launch of MVA Annual Report 2004
# March/April: MVA Journalist Seminar - Focus on Stem Cells
# 4-6 April: Biotech meeting / in collaboration with the Norwegian Embassy in Copenhagen
# 7 April: Food versus drugs workshop / in collaboration with Øresund Food Network
# 21 April: Food versus drugs workshop / in collaboration with Øresund Food Network
# Ultimo April: Launch of Medicon Valley Drug Development Guide
# 4 May: Danish Association for Cancer Research’s Annual meeting
# 21-24 August: 12th European Congress on Biotechnology / in collaboration with Danish Biotechnology Forum and The Danish Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
# October: Drug development network meeting - Insurance of clinical trials / in collaboration with Chubb Insurance Company of Europe
# 11-13 October: Medicon Valley exhibiton area and scientific track at BioTech Forum 2005 in Stockholm
READ MORE
MVA members: www.mva.org/members
MVA membership benefits: www.mva.org/benefits