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The Medicon Valley combines the regions of Northern Denmark and Southern Sweden. This region owes its existence as an economic zone to the building of a 16 km bridge across the Øresund Sound. It links Copenhagen in Denmark to the city of Malmö in the south of Sweden.
A recent study has confirmed the Medicon Valley's leading position in European biotechnological and medical research in terms of both quantity and quality. The study positions the Medicon Valley's research as third in all of Europe for Biomedicine, surpassed only by London and Paris.
These two countries realize global competition is not between nations, but between large cities. The bridge has made it possible to create a regional economy that can compete with the large metropolitan areas of Europe.
Sixty percent (60%) of the pharmaceutical and biotech companies in Scandinavia reside in the valley, as well as a number of the medical device companies. Pharmaceutical, biotechnological and medical technology industries export $4 billion annually.
The commercial centre of gravity is on the Danish side of the Medicon Valley. There are 32 biotechnology companies in Sweden and 80 in Denmark. On average there is one new biotech start-up a month in the region.
The Medicon Valley enjoys official status within the European Union and has received 12 billion euro in investments so far.
The Valley has benefited less from government investment in life science companies than some other regions. Government initiatives have focused on building excellence at the basic research level rather than providing "soft money" for start-ups.
Just six years ago, venture capital dedicated to biotechnology was unknown in Scandinavia. Now local and foreign investors have earmarked $650 million euro for biotechnology.
The Medicon Valley excels in four areas of medical research: diabetes, cancer, neuroscience and inflammation.
The abundance of qualified medical professionals to conduct clinical trials makes the Medicon Valley very attractive to biotech companies. Often hospitals are involved in multiple projects with competing drug developers. Also, Scandinavians are more willing than most to participate in clinical trials, making trials very cost-effective.
The Medicon Valley has 140,000 students, 26 hospitals and 12 universities including the large Copenhagen and Lund Universities. More than 30,000 people work in the valley's medical industry, including 4,000 researchers.
There are five science parks - Symbion, Horsholm and Cat in Copenhagen, Ideoan in Lund and Medeon in Malmö, which are supported by a mix of private and public funding.
Both Sweden and Denmark are global leaders in tele-medicine, health record systems and medical devices. In fact, Sweden is one of the most advanced medical equipment markets in the world.
Both Sweden and Denmark are shifting health care resources from high cost hospitals into more cost-effective forms of delivery, while still preserving, or even increasing, quality of care by placing greater emphasis on home care.
Tele-medicine applications facilitate patient information communication between different levels of the health care organization, home care and related units are highly prioritized areas.
The different services are categorized according to technical and user-oriented parameters such as mobility, user interface, bandwidth and security, and prioritized in dialog with health care actors.
They are experimenting with a test platform for diabetes care. They are developing components for continuous monitoring of physiological parameters and communication with a remote information system.
Usability of mobile terminals for home care visits including techniques for secure logon and authentication with notebooks, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and WAP-telephones, as well as techniques for secure communication of patient information between mobile terminals and electronic patient record systems within, for example, a primary healthcare centre.
The Medicon Valley facilitates and promotes interdisciplinary collaboration and research within IT, food science, the environment and medical/biotechnological development.
The region offers one of the first Bio + IT post-doctorate programs. The program brings nanotechnology, information technology and biotechnology together in a number of new and promising projects.
The Medicon Valley Authority is betting that new forms of medication will emerge from this interdisciplinary approach.
The Medicon Valley's success is due in large part to the level of cooperation which exists between the universities, industry, hospitals and life-science based companies in the area. The Authority promotes network building between people, companies and institutions within and between areas of strength.
This has resulted in closer working relationships between universities and the business community. In a survey, nine out of ten senior employees at universities in the Øresund region said their department co-operates with one or more companies in the Øresund region. Conversely, two out of three biotech companies said they consider the universities to be attractive partners and are involved with one or more universities from the area.
The Dates
The tour will depart Canada on Saturday, September 27 and return on Saturday, October 4, 2003.
The Focus
The Medicon Valley Smart Tour will focus on three areas:
The Options
At times, the interdisciplinary program will converge in areas of mutual interest while at other times you can decide among a number of options - what you see depends on your areas of interest.
The Commitment
We will show you the very best in technology, research, co-operation and marketing that the Medicon Valley has to offer. Most importantly, we will introduce you to the people and organizations that are making it all happen.
The following is the proposed schedule of interactive sessions and tours in the Medicon Valley:
The Medicon Valley Academy was created to further the relationship between the universities, industry, hospitals and life-science based companies in the area. It was established by six of the area's major universities with offices on either side of the sound in Copenhagen and Lund.
The academy assists with the development of collaboration by adding infrastructure and networking with projects. They have a database of information about research and knowledge in the area and making it visible and more accessible to those in the region and those outside.
According to Per Belfrage, Chair of the Medicon Valley Academy, "Being an attractive bio-region ultimately comes down to one thing - excellent research"
Copenhagen Capacity and Position Skåne are publicly funded organizations, which assist foreign companies, free of charge, in establishing activities in the Medicon Valley.
Together the two organizations market and promote the region as one of the world's leading life science clusters.
The services offered to foreign companies include information about commercial opportunities in Medicon Valley, programs for visits to Medicon Valley and contact with potential co-operation partners in the industry and research environment in the region.
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Danish based Carlsberg Breweries is one of the leading brewing groups in the world, with nearly 29,000 employees, annual beer sales of 7.9 billion litres and operations at 103 sites in 49 countries.
Carlsberg has a long-standing and renowned tradition of carrying out research, and for several years it has been normal practice to apply genetic engineering in basic research projects carried out at the Carlsberg Research Centre.
Carlsberg Research Center is integrating a broad panel of scientific competencies to create novel opportunities within three strategic focus areas:
Carlsberg BioSector identifies early scientific ideas and concepts that have the potential of becoming the foundation of new biotechnology companies.
The Carlsberg Research Center moves forward project ideas to proof-of-concept stage, and then, together with Carlsberg Incubator, assist in spinning-out the projects as stand-alone entities.
Novo Nordisk is a focused healthcare company with biotechnological expertise. In terms of R&D, the strong focus is reflected by the worldwide leadership position they have maintained within the area of diabetes research for eight decades.
Biotech expertise is evidenced by the many biopharmaceuticals that have been discovered and developed by Novo Nordisk: human insulin, insulin aspart, insulin detemir, growth hormone, FVIIa and glucagon.
Novo Nordisk has an annual R&D budget in excess of half a billion euros (CD$800 million). Globally, more than 3000 people work on R&D activities at Novo Nordisk.
Elekta is a world-leading supplier of advanced and innovative radiation oncology and neurosurgery solutions and services for precise treatment of cancer and brain disorders.
Elekta has recently signed agreements to deliver their Leksell Gamma Knife® equipment to the U.S., Canada, Japan, China, Taiwan and France.
Elekta's new Elekta Synergy™ image-guided radiotherapy research project has the potential to expand the use of radiation medicine by delivering cancer tumor targeting via a new integrated 3-dimensional imaging system.
Danish Centre for Health Informatics
The Danish Centre for Health Informatics was established December 1994. Projects under the same management are sharing facilities in the centre, all having implementation of Electronic Health Care Networks as the focal point.
The main projects coordinated by the Centre are the regional network FynCom, the national network MedCom and the European network CoCo.
Other European projects on health care networks are PRIMACOM and PICNIC. The Centre is responsible for the "integration aspects" in the national Electronic Health Care Record Observatory. Furthermore, the centre provides consultancy as well as project-support concerning telematics in the health care sector.
MedCom
The Danish healthcare network, MedCom, sends one lab result electronically every second of every day.
From its inception in 1995, MedCom has continually grown; currently all hospitals, laboratories and pharmacies and 86% of GPs use the network. MedCom has also enabled Denmark to have the highest rate of e-prescriptions in the world.
Its strength lies in the use of one standard electronic form used by everyone in Denmark in the same way. Patients and healthcare practitioners securely interconnect and exchange information electronically, saving Danish healthcare 60 million euros each year. MedCom was selected for the EU's e-health awards.
BioFund Management Oy Ltd is one of the leading European venture capital management companies investing solely in the Life Sciences. The main sectors of BioFund include Pharmaceuticals, Medical Technologies, Nutrition, and Environmental Technologies.
BioFund's organization has more than 100 years of experience in various life sciences sectors, including more than 30 years experience in venture capital management.
They are invested in more than 40 companies in 7 countries, mostly in the Nordic region, with 182 million euro (CD$290 million) under management. BioFund is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland and maintains offices in Turku, Finland and Copenhagen, Denmark.
Øresund IT Academy is a cooperative organization for Swedish and Danish IT organizations in the Øresund region. The overall aim is to create an optimal environment for the development of business, education and research in the IT sector.
Through cross-fertilization of Swedish and Danish firms, new knowledge can be created to generate growth in both new and established IT companies.
Øresund IT Academy's work concentrates on creating physical and virtual meeting places. This takes the form of seminars, discussion groups, collaborative projects, post-doctorate programs and information databases. Øresund IT Academy has initiated one of the world's first Bio-IT post-doctoral programs.
The 11 universities and colleges in the area have come together to create Øresund University, a confederation that allows students at any one school to take advantage of classes, libraries, and technical equipment at all the others. By sharing resources, the institutions are establishing specialized programs that would otherwise have been unaffordable.
University of Copenhagen
With almost 35,000 students and more than 7,000 employees, the University of Copenhagen is the largest institution of research and education in Denmark.
Approximately one hundred different institutes, departments, laboratories, centres and museums form the nucleus of the University.
The University of Copenhagen is home to the Panum Institute, the August Krogh Institute, the H.C. Ørsted Institute, Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet) and The Royal Danish School of Pharmacy.
The newly founded Biotech Research and Innovation Centre is currently being constructed at the University of Copenhagen. It is the most ambitious investment in biotechnology research in Denmark to date. BRIC will concentrate research in bioinformatics, gene expression and transgenic technology.
Lund University, with seven faculties and a number of research centres and specialized institutes, is the largest unit for research and higher education in Sweden.
Lund University is the home of the Max-laboratory, one of four national laboratories in Sweden financed by NFR (the Swedish Natural Science Research Council). The Max-lab has two electron accelerators, the biggest of which, Max II, is one of the most powerful synchrotron radiation sources in the world
The main part of the university is situated in Lund, but a number of departments for research and education are located in Malmö and Helsingborg. We will be visiting Lund University in Malmö.
Lund University was founded in 1666. The University has developed into a modern international centre for research and higher education. Lund University is the only Nordic member of U 21, an international network of 17 outstanding universities from 10 countries.
More than 38,000 students are enrolled at Lund University with some 6000 employees.
University Hospital Malmö
UMAS is a university and regional hospital providing basic and highly specialized medical care for 270,000 Malmö inhabitants and the whole southern region of Sweden which has 1.6 million residents. UMAS cares for an average of 2,000 patients per day and trains over 500 medical and nursing students.
At UMAS you will see a demonstration of Sjunet, which is the infrastructure for communication of health care data and services in Sweden, including various forms of telemedicine. Also, you will see some of the latest technology in digital radiology. In addition, we will visit the Wallenberg Laboratory, which is a world leader in diabetes research.
You will be invited to attend a networking evening in Copenhagen that will give you an opportunity to mix and mingle with 'movers and shakers' from the Medicon Valley. Expect to meet senior executives from the life science, pharmaceutical, venture capital and healthcare companies and institutions from throughout Scandinavia.
The evening will begin with a discussion panel comparing opportunities in Europe and North America for these knowledge industries. Following the panel discussion there will be a gala reception you will not want to miss.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Copenhagen is a city rich with history that is evident in its historical buildings and ancient streets, dozens of world class museums and galleries. It holds claim to the uniquely enchanting Tivoli Gardens, and a resident monarchy that is the oldest in the world. The Danish capital has a host of attractions worth seeing.
But Copenhagen is no living museum. A vibrant city whose fascinating past coexists with the very latest trends in architecture, design and fashion.
Copenhagen is one of the world's great design capitals, a status that is reflected in its dynamic new buildings and stunning retail shops. Over 1.7 million people live in the Greater Copenhagen area.
Malmö, Sweden
Malmö was given its municipal charter in 1352 and has since developed into a modern industrial and commercial city. With a population of 265,000 it is the third largest city in Sweden.
Malmö is home to the World Maritime University, which was established by the United Nations. The cultural institutions of Malmö have much to offer. The wealth of material in the museums, including Malmöhus Castle, provide a vivid image of the cultural development of the town and region.
There are many small theatres that specialize in opera, operettas, musicals and ballet. The concert hall, the municipal art gallery and the Rooseum art gallery offer programs of a high international standard.
Malmö is only about 20 minutes by train or 45 minutes by ferry from Copenhagen. Malmö has a modern city theatre with several stages, and a prominent symphony orchestra, as well as interesting art museum and galleries.
The Medicon Valley Smart Tour PackageDeparting most major Canadian cities on a Saturday, September 27 and returning the following Saturday, October 4, 2003. Just bring your passport, luggage and a desire to learn and network - we will look after the rest. Package includes:
Total cost for this package will be $CD 7,500.00. The Innovators Global Network member's price: $CD 7,300.00. |
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Book now! $2,500 deposit required to hold package. Limited Availability! Final confirmation and payment required by August 15, 2003. Availability and prices subject to change after this date. |
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