Fifth Year of the Health – Made in Germany Export Initiative

Participants of the annual meeting of the Health – Made in Germany export initiative (third from left: Claudia Englbrecht, BIO Deutschland). Photo: GTAI.

The fourth annual meeting of the Health – Made in Germany export initiative took place at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy on 28 January. The aim of this initiative, in which BIO Deutschland is represented as a member of the Working Group on Medical Biotechnology, is to promote the export of German health products. A study presented at the annual meeting showed the strong export performance by the German health sector as a whole, but also revealed that the relative share of German health products is declining in certain important export countries. These findings show how important the export initiative’s activities remain. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy recently announced that the initiative would be made permanent. At the meeting, the working groups presented their activities during the past year and discussed planned projects. The Working Group on Medical Biotechnology is very active in trade fairs in the target countries of the US, Japan and Israel. A new guide to the US market will be published in 2015.

The working groups would like to see the many positive activities backed up by greater political support for the various measures, as well as more coordination between the departments involved. They all warmly welcomed the announcement that the initiative would be made permanent.