Press release
Copenhagen, 9 November 2007
The Danish biotech cluster known as Medicon Valley has, within a short period, grown into a global hotspot in the field of personalized medicine, and finds itself increasingly in favor among big pharma and big biotech. Experience Danish competencies at the 3rd Annual Personalized Medicine Meeting in San Francisco from 12th – 13th November.
With over 10 research institutions and 15-20 private companies engaged in personalized medicine, the Danish biotech cluster known as Medicon Valley has in record time become a strong player in currently one of the hottest research fields within the pharmaceutical industry.
Several of these Danish players operate on an individual basis, although many are also involved in collaborative research efforts, including the Danish Center for Translational Breast Cancer Research, the siRNA Delivery Center, the Danish microRNA consortium and special research departments at the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark.
This is one reason why Denmark is participating in 3rd Annual Personalized Medicine Meeting in San Francisco, where Director of Knowledge and Communications at Danish Medicines Agency Kaare Geil is in the panel discussion on the second day to give a European/Danish perspective on the topic: Who Will Pay? The Economics of Personalized Medicine. Kaare Geil says: “Denmark has a national cancer plan, which is very clear on personalized medicine. The ministry of health as well as the ministry of science, has specific programs to support and enable the implementation of personalized medicines in our systems.”
Søren M. Echwald, M.Sc., Ph.D., who is Vice President and responsible for Business Development at Exiqon will be hosting a table discussion at the conference. ”Exiqon is very committed to our diagnostic vision, and is active with several diagnostic projects,” says Søren M. Echwald. “With Exqion’s key technologies, the growing role of microRNA in classification of cancers, and the strong clinical network in Scandinavia, we feel ideally positioned to contribute to the improvement of cancer treatment selection.”
Business Development Manager Vibeke Dalhoff from Copenhagen Capacity, the official investment promotion agency of the Capital Region of Denmark explains: ”Denmark is absolutely world-class within biomedicine and we are pioneers within personalized medicine, with strong competencies in the therapeutic and cancer fields, among others.”
Gitte Pedersen, special advisor with the sister organization Invest in Denmark: ”Denmark is in a unique position. We excel at developing medicine, we have core competencies within system biology, which is the toolbox for personalized medicine, and we have a health service that can see the advantages of implementing individualized medicine and engage in an open dialog between companies and the authorities”.
Given this cocktail of companies, research environment and interest from the public sector, international pharmaceutical companies working on personalized medicine have a strong focus on Denmark and Medicon Valley.
”There is growing interest in the Danish competencies within individualized medicine”, says Vibeke Dalhoff.
For further information:
Vibeke Dalhoff tel.: +45 3326 8722/+45 61626464, email: vda@copcap.com
Gitte Pedersen, tel.: +1 212 665 8626, email: gp@investindk.com
These companies work with personalized medicine in Denmark:
Within diagnostics: Dako, Exiqon, FluimediX and Medical Prognostic Institute.
Within drug discovery: Genmab, Novo Nordisk, Pharmexa, Santaris Pharma and TopoTarget.
