Regional Excellence and Global Challenges: 
A Sum-Up of the Programme

The MVA 10-year Jubilee gave participants an opportunity to hear about the “Regional Excellence and Global Challenges” in Medicon Valley. If you did not attend, this article gives you a short update on the programme.

In the last 10 years, Medicon Valley has developed into a dynamic region with flourishing life science initiatives and world-class research and entrepreneurship. Together with its regional partners, Medicon Valley Alliance has taken an active part in this development. At the MVA Jubilee, participants had the opportunity to hear speakers from science and business talk about the "Regional Excellence and global Challenges" in Medicon Valley.

MVA - initially an experimental project

Birger Olofsson, former Managing Director of the Oresund Committee, was among the first to nurture the MVA vision. Olofsson told anecdotes about the birth of MVA - the concept of a cluster organisation - in 1996, as well as the first steps in developing the initial EU project into a real organisation three years later. According to Olofsson, it has not been an easy task to develop such a cluster organisation, but today, ten years on, the concept has proved to be a great success.

Olofsson ended his presentation by formulating his vision of an important future challenge for MVA: The task of creating a closer link to the hospitals in the region. 

Excellent research in Medicon Valley

Anders Björklund, Professor at Wallenberg Neurocenter, Lund University and Søren Brunak, Professor and Director at Centre of Biological Sequence Analysis, DTU represented the region's excellence research.

Björklund explained how the Wallenberg Neurocenter is working on transforming stem cells into dopamine neurons, while Brunak presented research in the field of bioinformatics and systems biology. According to Brunak, it is quite possible that future Google ads will be based on the user's genes and potential medical needs.

Partnerships are crucial - certainly within life science

The business element in Medicon Valley was exemplified by Camurus, which was named the "best biotech company" in Medicon Valley at the Strictly Financing Award 2007 and Genmab. Frederik Tiberg, CEO of Camurus, talked about the mission of "dressing up molecules" to create high-value therapeutics. Claus Møller, COO of Genmab, provided an interesting overview of Genmab's production of therapeutic antibodies, the success story of Genmab's development and the impressive license agreement with GlaxoSmithKline in 2006.

In spite of the different business focus of the two companies, both Tiberg and Møller expressed the importance of cooperation between the Danish and Swedish sides of Medicon Valley in terms of the future global challenges facing Genmab and Camurus.

Attracting talent to Medicon Valley

One of the big challenges in the region is getting students interested in studying life science, thus creating the pool of talent crucial for the progress of Medicon Valley. This was the reason for holding the Medicon Valley Life Science Tour and Competition.

The winner of the Essay Competition, Milena Laban, was announced at the MVA Jubilee and was awarded DKK 5,000 for her vision of the future life science sector in Medicon Valley.

The region's international outreach

Another major challenge of the future is strengthening the international outreach of Medicon Valley and securing the competitive advantage of the region. During its first 10 years, MVA has been dedicated to regional development, but this is now changing to an international focus. The Medicon Valley Ambassador Programme is an important initiative in dealing with this challenge, which was underpinned in the presentation from Stig Jørgensen, Managing Director of MVA. Life science technologies, investment opportunities and research collaborations are all global in their perspectives, and the future belongs to clusters and organisations that can enter into productive international win-win relations. Thus, MVA is focusing strongly on letting the world know about Medicon Valley.

Science and business relations with Japan

Finally, Dr. Hiroo Imura, Chairman of the Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation (FBRI) in Kobe, gave his views on future Ambassador Programme collaboration between Medicon Valley and the Kobe-Kansai region, Japan. Furthermore, the Japanese life science ambassador to Medicon Valley, Dr. Asada, was introduced to the guests.

By MVA, 1.11.2007