- Medicon Valley
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Medicon Valley is a leading bi-national life-sciences cluster in Europe, spanning the Øresund Region of eastern Denmark and southern Sweden. It is one of Europe's strongest life science clusters with a large number of life science companies and research institutions located within a very small geographical area.
History
The idea of Medicon Valley slowly emerged during the early 1990s and was formalised and financially supported through the European Union Interreg II programme. Medicon Valley connects academia, hospitals and companies in the Oresund Region, which includes the regions of Greater Copenhagen and Sealand in Denmark and Skåne in Sweden. Medicon Valley has a population of approximately 3.2 million inhabitants. This cross-border cluster was initiated by local industry, which already formed a strong knowledge base with five big pharmaceutical companies, the brewery Carlsberg and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and Lund University in Sweden.
Many of the region's universities have a strong heritage in biological and medical research and have produced several Nobel Prize winners. The almost century-long presence of a number of research-intensive and fully integrated pharmaceutical companies, such as Novo Nordisk, H. Lundbeck, AstraZeneca and LEO Pharma, has also contributed significantly to the development of the region by strengthening abilities within applied research, attracting suppliers and producing spin-offs.
Since the mid-1990s a fast-paced development has been taking place, and today Medicon Valley comprises a dense cluster of universities, hospitals and companies within life science, biotech, medtech and pharma, many of which are R&D based.
The main objective for the formation of the Medicon Valley cluster was to foster greater research cooperation between companies and academia involved in the life science sectors, including pharmacology, biotechnology, and medical technology on both sides of the Oresund Strait. This includes 12 universities, 32 hospitals, more than 300 life science companies and the cluster organisation Medicon Valley Alliance. The biotechnology industry employs around 40,000 people in the region, 4,000 of whom are academic researchers. International companies with major research centres in the region include Novo Nordisk, Lundbeck, LEO Pharma, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and AstraZeneca. Medicon Valley accounts for more than 20% of the total GDP of Denmark and Sweden combined[1].
The Medicon Valley region is known for its research strengths in the areas of neurological disorders, inflammatory diseases, cancer and diabetes.
References
The Medicon Valley Region: Academia and Industry Join Forces in Research and Training (2003)[2]
Medicon Valley in European leadership (2005) [3]
Medicon Valley bridges business with biotech (2006) [4]
Sweden: A Midnight Sun for Biotech (2007) [5]
External links
Categories:- Biotechnology
- High-technology business districts
- Science and technology in Denmark
- Science and technology in Sweden
- Venture capital
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