Annual Meeting of the Health Made in Germany Export Initiative at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology
Health Made in Germany, an
export initiative started by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and
coordinated by Germany Trade and Invest, held its first major meeting with
trade associations a year ago. BIO Deutschland is an active participant and
provides input to the Working Group on Medical Biotechnology. (The German
Association of Biotechnology Industries (DIB) and the Association of Germany Biotechnology Companies (VBU)
also participate.) The initiative’s other working groups deal with the topics
of telemedicine and health-related services, the pharmaceutical industry and the
medical technology industry.
A year later, a one-day meeting of all those involved was held at the Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin on 17 January 2012 to look at the results to date. The questions discussed included: Where do we now stand with the export initiative? Has the course set by the working groups proved successful? How could we improve our work?
BIO Deutschland gave a brief overview of the activities it has conducted so far:
- Comprehensive analysis of possible topics and identification of contract manufacturing of biopharmaceutical agents (biomanufacturing) as a major topic in spring 2011.
- Compilation of a directory of biomanufacturing companies in cooperation with the bioregions and pharmaceutical associations in May 2011.
- Presentation of the directory at ILSI Biomed in Tel Aviv as part of a panel discussion with German and Israeli biotechnology companies in May 2011
- Active promotion of the directory and German biomanufacturing at BIO International Convention in Washington, D.C. in June 2011, Ausbiotech in Adelaide in October 2011 and a follow-up conference in Tel Aviv in November 2011.
The association also presented the activities it has planned for 2012:
- In addition to biomanufacturing, contract research will be a topic in 2012.
- A directory of companies that conduct contract research will be compiled and marketing of this topic will be expanded.
- India, the USA and Japan will be further core countries in 2012.
- The association will participate in the activities of the Working Group on Medical Products in India (Indo-German Healthcare Dialogue) to generate synergies.
- There will be a road show in Boston/Cambridge and the San Francisco Bay Area (California) to present the topics of biomanufacturing and contract research in May.
- An event organised in close cooperation with the German Embassy Tokyo will be held in the second half of the year.
Following the discussion among the trade associations and other lobby groups, further institutions and various divisions from other governmental ministries presented their work on the initiative. The aim was to identify further opportunities for cooperation and to make use of synergies where possible.
You will find general information at: www.exportinitiative-gesundheitswirtschaft.de/EIG/Navigation/EN/root.html
Further information on the meeting held on 17 January 2012 is available in German at:
www.exportinitiative-gesundheitswirtschaft.de/EIG/Navigation/neuigkeiten,did=470850.html