April 2016
SME Alliance visits State Secretary Vitt at the Federal Ministry of the Interior
BIO Deutschland, together with the SME Alliance, discussed the digital agenda of the Federal Government with State Secretary Klaus Vitt of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI). The main topics of the meeting were the IT security law and how to involve German SMEs more in discussions about digitisation. BIO Deutschland used the occasion to point out that there are considerable opportunities for innovative biotech as a result of developments in the IT sector and the new role of ICT as a cross-cutting technology. Against this background, big data is a topic that concerns firms that provide biotech services as well as diagnostic and pharmaceutical biotech companies. It is therefore important to maintain fair competition between the various approaches to digitisation and to ensure the compatibility and interoperability of these approaches. This also includes making health-relevant data equally accessible to all stakeholders and upholding data protection standards.