BIO Deutschland holds parliamentary evening in the Reichstag

Panellists at BIO Deutschland’s parliamentary evening (from left to right): Sylvia Wojczewski (BioSpring), Roland Sackers (Qiagen), Stefan Miltenyi (Miltenyi Biotec), Tatjana Ohm (moderator), Thomas Gambke (MdB, Alliance 90/The Greens), Gabriele Katzmarek (MdB, SPD), Ralph Lenkert (MdB, The Left Party), Alexandra Dinges-Diering (MdB, CDU). © Zöhre. Kurc.

On 20 September, BIO Deutschland held an information evening to discuss the topics of personalised medicine and advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) with members of the Bundestag. After Peter Heinrich, Chairman of the Board of BIO Deutschland, introduced the evening’s topics, Tatjana Ohm took over the moderation of the event. The panel discussion format was designed to enable Bundestag members to pose questions to representatives from the biotech industry, thus encouraging a two-way dialogue. Panellists included Sylvia Wojczewski, Managing Director of BioSpring GmbH, Roland Sackers, Chief Financial Officer of Qiagen N. V. and Stefan Miltenyi, Managing Director of Miltenyi Biotec GmbH, as well as Bundestag members Alexandra Dinges-Diering (CDU), Thomas Gambke (Alliance 90/The Greens), Gabriele Katzmarek (SPD) and Ralph Lenkert (The Left Party). The biotech representatives explained the enormous potential that personalised medicine offers, stressing how important it is to have an adequate and timely reimbursement for companion diagnostics if this potential is to be realised. The panellists also discussed, among other topics, training for specialists and financing for innovative SMEs. They often contrasted the situation here with that in the United States, where innovation centres have sprung up around excellent universities and significantly more venture capital and endowment funds are available to companies. The parliamentarians in attendance showed an understanding for the problems and demands of the companies. However, apart from the change to loss carry-forward rules recently proposed by the Federal Ministry of Finance for this legislative period, they did not expect to see any major improvements in the area of financing. The discussion was later opened up to the audience, giving other parliamentarians and biotech representatives an opportunity to ask questions.

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