Minister Bruijn accepts Biotech Nexus proposal

A few days after the presentation of the Wennink report, Minister Bruijn of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport received the report ‘The Netherlands in the vanguard: red biotech as key to global competitiveness; a growth strategy for economy, society and patient’ at the Leiden Bio Science Park, near Leiden University Medical Center. The minister received the report from Annemiek Verkamman (hollandbio) , Carla Vos (Verenging Innovatieve Geneesmiddelen), and Esther Peters (Leiden Bio Science Park) on behalf of the entire sector.

Red Biotech

The report came about at the request of Peter Wennink, as part of the national investment agenda, and represents the joint input of the Dutch red biotech sector. Leiden Bio Science Park was asked by Wennink to take the lead in developing the plan and did so together with hollandbio, in close cooperation with partners in Leiden as well as with the other Dutch science parks, including Campus Groningen, Health & Innovation District Amsterdam (HID), Utrecht Science Park, Pivot Park, Brightlands Maastricht Health Campus and the Vereniging Innovatieve Geneesmiddelen. The economic analysis and modeling underpinning the report were conducted with the involvement of KPMG. A number of onepagers were created as an appendix.

Joint choices

The Netherlands has strong clusters, high-quality infrastructure and internationally recognized knowledge institutions. Exploiting this potential requires joint choices:

better access to capital and talent,
secure and shared access to (bio)data,
faster and predictable procedures for licensing and clinical research, and
sufficient space for research, scale-up and production.

Minister Jan Anthonie Bruijn of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport said, “Biotechnology brings us drugs that are truly groundbreaking. The further development of this sector is therefore important for the Netherlands, not to mention the patient. I am actively committed to this and will, among other things, represent our interests in Europe to achieve good legislation through the European BioTech Act. I thank all those involved who have worked to produce this report. I am going to read it with great attention.”

Biotech Nexus

In the report, the industry proposes, among other things, the creation of a national, cross-policy and cross-ministry program: Biotech Nexus. This program should accelerate knowledge valorization, support companies in scaling up, and jointly work on better infrastructure and faster procedures.

“Red biotech makes it possible to recognize diseases earlier and treat patients more precisely and effectively,” said Esther Peters, director of Leiden Bio Science Park. “That means better care and better lives. We as Leiden and as a sector, together with the ministry, want to move now and use what is already possible today to bring innovations to patients faster. By working together as science parks, companies, knowledge institutions and government, we can make a difference. For care, for the patient and for the future prosperity of our country.”

Crossovers

As Key Region Leiden, we are proud to contribute to this national movement dedicated to strengthening the future earning capacity of the Netherlands. The resulting innovation offers our region pre-eminently many opportunities in terms of crossovers between the knowledge clusters Leiden Bio Science Park, NL Space Campus and Unmanned Valley. It is also our mission to strengthen this knowledge axis. This is not only good for the knowledge economy, but also for the local economy. It offers many opportunities for broad-based SMEs, service providers and suppliers.