BIO Deutschland involved in OECD Review of Innovation Policy for Germany
On 3 November BIO Deutschland participated for the second time in a fact-finding mission under the auspices of the OECD Review of Innovation Policy for Germany, focusing on biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. The dialogue is part of a transfer initiative led by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
Key questions discussed with other experts from academia and industry were the sector’s innovative edge and challenges faced by innovative companies, the impact of decarbonisation and digitalisation, and the necessary policy environment for the sector.
BIO Deutschland stressed the following points during the discussions:
- Germany still lacks a value chain perspective. There is too much thinking in sectors and silos. Biotechnology in particular is a key technology used in many sectors.
- Biotechnology companies are the link between academia and large corporations, especially in the industrial healthcare sector. With their companies, founders are the transmission belt for transforming inventions and discoveries into innovations that serve society. Such technology transfer therefore needs to be fostered. It is particularly important in this context to increase the start-up rate in biotechnology.
- Research programmes are extremely diverse and fragmented, so simplification should be pursued. In addition, the processing time needs to significantly reduced to three months. It is also important not to lose sight of the necessity to promote the scale-up from laboratory scale to industrial production and of the needs of growth companies.
- Biotechnology companies need sufficient equity capital to be able to scale up development programs in such a way to facilitate a successful market entry. An appropriate regulatory framework must be created for this to happen, and funding programmes must also be aligned accordingly.
- Digitalisation is firmly entrenched in biotechnology. What companies lack is access to anonymised digital patient data. A solution is urgently needed so that industry can also gain access to health data.