General Assembly elects new BIO Deutschland Board

The sector association of the biotechnology industry, BIO Deutschland, elected a new board for 2012 and 2013 at its eighth ordinary general assembly, which took place ahead of the leading biotech trade fair, Biotechnica, in Hanover.

The ten members of the board of BIO Deutschland represent various sectors of innovative small and medium-sized biotechnology enterprises, industry and the BioRegions. The following members were re-elected:

• Prof. Dr. Horst Domdey, Managing Director of BioM Biotech Cluster Development GmbH, Martinsried
• Dr. Peter Heinrich, CEO of Magforce AG, Berlin
• Norbert Hentschel, CFO/Managing Director of Miltenyi Biotec GmbH, Bergisch-Gladbach
• Peter Pohl, CEO of GATC Biotech AG, Konstanz
• Prof. Dr. Felicia Rosenthal, Managing Director of CellGenix GmbH, Freiburg
• Roland Sackers, CFO of QIAGEN N.V., Hilden
• Dr. Christian Schetter, Managing Director of Biotech GmbH, Munich
• Dr. Jan Schmidt-Brand, CEO of Heidelberg Pharma AG, Ladenburg
• Dr. Rainer Wessel, Director of the Cluster für Individualisierte Immunintervention (CI3) e. V., Mainz

Dr. Andre Koltermann, Head of Strategic Development at Süd-Chemie AG, Munich, was newly elected to the board.

“The biotechnology sector has developed rapidly in recent years and has made further innovative products ready for the market in all segments. The ongoing main task of the board of BIO Deutschland is to strengthen this buoyancy, which is mainly a result of the endeavours of innovative small and medium-sized biotech enterprises,” said Peter Heinrich, who was unanimously re-elected chairman of the board after the general assembly. He added that biotechnology is a vital part of everyday business: “Energy transition and increased environmental demands on industrial processes – the keyword is bio-economy – but also personalised medicine and the adaptation of the health care system to new social structures will reinforce the importance of biotechnology. This is why we in BIO Deutschland believe it is worthwhile continuing to lobby for the improvement of the parameters for innovative small and mediums-sized biotechnology enterprises.” During the general assembly, Peter Heinrich underlined the association’s main demand of the political sphere, namely that it should show clearer support for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises and put words into action. “During the recent crisis, small and medium-sized enterprises proved to be Germany’s strongest economic support. Only if we continue to strengthen this economic pillar will we be able to remain one of the most important industrial locations in the world.”

“The results of the member survey reflect the satisfaction with the work of the association to date,” added Viola Bronsema, Managing Director of BIO Deutschland. The number of members who are “very satisfied” with BIO Deutschland’s work has more than doubled from 23 to 53 per cent since 2007. “Almost 92 per cent of the members surveyed stated that they were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with our work on behalf of the biotech sector this year.”

Apart from the election of the board, the association management presented a comprehensive report on its activities. In addition, the participants were interested to hear reports on the activities of the working groups, which deal with the topics of German-US cooperation, diagnostics, finance and taxation, health policy, communication and public relations, regulatory matters, licences and technical contracts, and competition and regulatory policy. The spokesperson of the BioRegions Working Group, Klaus Eichenberg, also gave the members attending the assembly a short presentation on the activities of this committee, which is run under the auspices of BIO Deutschland.