BioTOPics 44 | May 2012
BioTOP-Report
Editorial
Excellence in Life Sciences and Healthcare
3
Industry
Biotech Industry Continues to Grow
4
Biotech Parks
The BioCampus Network Berlin-Brandenburg
18
Life Sciences
Excellent Research in Berlin-Brandenburg
24
Theranostics
A New Approach in Individualized Healthcare for the Future
28
Health-IT
New Opportunities for Biotechnology on the Interface between Life Sciences and IT
30
Biomaterials
Biotechnologically Improved Biomaterials from Berlin and Brandenburg
32
Bioeconomy
Towards the Age of the Bioeconomy
42
Global Business
The Role of Berlin-Brandenburg
in the European Context
44
Education
Knowledge-Based Leadership
46
Addresses
49
Publisher: TSB Innovationsagentur Berlin GmbH · Division Life Sciences/Healthcare · BioTOP Berlin-Brandenburg
Fasanenstraße 85 · 10623 Berlin · Germany · Phone +49 30 318622-0 · Fax +49 30 318622-22 · biotop@biotop.de · www.biotop.de
Editor: Yvonne Küchler
Design & Production: supiran.de
Translation: Textbüro Reul GmbH · Frankfurt
Photos/Figures: BioTOP or Authors and: Titel: Jankaliciak* (DNA-molecule) Kirsty Pargeter* (DNA), Andreiadis* (Molecule background), Dzombie* (Hand),
Christoph Buckstegen (Sony Center), Andrey Armyagov* (Test tubes) Page 5: Lightpoet*, Maximus117; Page 9: Martin Joppen (Portrait Maas) Page 10: Ioana
Davies*; Page 11: Bernd Blumrich (Portrait Siodla); Page 22: Vanillla*; Page 24: Silke Oßwald, FMP (Portrait Haucke); Page 25: MDC/David Ausserhofer (Portrait
Rosenthal), Helmholtz/Dawin Meckel (Portrait Mlynek) Page 26: Chaoss*, Raduhuc*; Page 31: Frank Nuernberger (Portrait Tosun) Page 44: Moth*; Page 48:
TSB/Uwe Steinert [*dreamstime.com]
Content
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BioTOPics 44 | May 2012
BioTOP-Report
Editorial
Excellence in Life Sciences and Healthcare
Over the past 20 years, the biotechnology industry in Berlin-Brandenburg has developed into an innovation
driver which also influences many other sectors. Both in research and industry, we have seen continuous
growth in the number of institutions and companies engaged in biotechnology. This growth is driven primarily
by excellent research. The region’s unique density of prestigious science and research facilities forms an ideal
breeding ground for the foundation and location of research-oriented health sector companies. Internationally,
Berlin-Brandenburg now counts as one of the world’s leading healthcare and life science locations.
More than 200 biotechnology and 30 pharmaceutical companies
are located in the German Capital Region. They include global
corporations like Bayer HealthCare, Bausch & Lomb, B. Braun
Melsungen, Berlin-Chemie, Pfizer, Sanofi and Nycomed Takeda.
Along with the sector’s many small and mid-sized companies,
they benefit from close cooperation, both with science and with
more than 130 hospitals – among them, above all, one of Eu-
rope’s largest university hospitals: Charité – Universitätsmedizin
Berlin.
The new capabilities of IT-based technologies open up entirely
new potentials for biotechnology and healthcare in the direction
of increasingly personalised diagnostics and therapy. In this re-
gard, too, the German Capital Region is a founder Mecca of the
IT industry and boasts major companies and institutions like SAP,
Siemens and the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam.
Based on its excellence in interdisciplinary and translational co-
operation, the Cluster HealthCapital Berlin Brandenburg is gen-
erating innovations which are to benefit patients as soon as pos-
sible. Close networking of all players in the region is essential to
accelerate the translation of the newest research findings into in-
novative products. As part of the joint innovation strategy of the
states of Berlin and Brandenburg (innoBB), this task was assigned
to the cluster management organisation HealthCapital. BioTOP
forms part of this cluster management, and we are pleased to
present the most important developments in the life sciences,
pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to you in this BioTOP-Report
2012 in the new layout of the Cluster HealthCapital.
We hope you enjoy reading our report and look forward to con-
tinuing good cooperation with you.
Dr. Kai Bindseil
Dr. Kai Bindseil
Director BioTOP Berlin-Brandenburg
Cluster Manager HealthCapital
bindseil@biotop.de
www.biotop.de
4
BioTOPics 44 | May 2012
BioTOP-Report
Industry
Biotech Industry Continues to Grow
The Berlin-Brandenburg biotech industry has continued to develop positively in 2011. As in previous years,
the number of employees grew by 4 %. Compared to the average growth rate of 3.5 % of the last years, that is
a good result and a sign of the dynamism in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. Currently 215 companies employ
4,068 people here.
Business development in 2011
Once again in 2011, BioTOP carried out a survey of regional com-
panies to learn about current developments and gain a compre-
hensive overview of the business landscape. In 2011, the number
of companies increased by 17 newly registered businesses. They
include five new start-ups, six companies that began their busi-
ness operations in 2011 and six that were newly listed. Two com-
panies ceased operations.
The new companies are smaller units with a strong focus on ser-
vices and product developments that are close to the market.
One example – financed by the High-Tech Gründerfonds – is the
OakLabs GmbH, providing services and products in the field of
customer-specific SNP analysis and focusing on the development
of diagnostic DNA markers for complex attributes. Another is
TissUse GmbH, which was founded by TU Berlin and is a prod-
uct of the GO-Bio competition sponsored by the German Federal
Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The company has
developed the following innovation: Using a multi-organ biore-
actor in chip format, substances can be tested on humans even
before exposition, thereby enabling the prediction of consumer-
relevant reactions.
Overall, there has been little change in the size of companies
in recent years. 62 % of all companies recorded are small busi-
nesses with fewer than ten employees. However, those compa-
nies employ less than 16 % of the sector’s workforce, while 32 %
JANUARY 2011
RNL Bio (Korea) acquires the Berlin stem cell company Pharmicell Europe
++++
QIAGEN to acquire stake in Alacris, gaining access to biomarker pipeline
for use in personalized healthcare assays
++++
GILUPI GmbH: VC
funding in
the amount of Euro 3.6 million
FEBRUARY 2011
MOLOGEN AG: Euro 10 Mio capital increase
++++
The European Commission
awards the newly created “Region of Excellence” label to Brandenburg
MARCH 2011
Algenol announces acquisition of Cyano Biofuels GmbH
++++
Revotar Bio-
pharmaceuticals meets primary endpoint in Phase II COPD study with inhaled
Bimosiamose
APRIL 2011
Co.don AG: exclusive agreement with Novomedics GmbH to distribute its cell-
based therapy chondrosphere
®
for Switzerland
++++
Glycotope Biotechnol-
ogy expands GMP production facility to 11 kg antibody per year and starts
phase I clinical trial of FSH-GEX for the treatment of anovulatory infertility
MAY 2011
Lonza and ORGANOBALANCE enter global license agreement to develop
and market unique probiotic (Lactobacillus anti-H. pylori)
++++
The patient
inclusion criteria for the MOLOGEN AG clinical study of the colorectal cancer
medicine MGN1703 are broadened. This creates the opportunity to obtain the
expected market approval for the drug independently of a specified first-line
therapy
++++
Caprotec bioanalytics increases series B financing in second
closing to 5 million Euros
JUNE 2011
Silence Therapeutics` Atu027 demonstrates promising anti-tumour activity
in Phase I study presented at ASCO
++++
BIOTECON Diagnostics completes
development of a rapid test for EHEC (enterohemorrhagic E. coli) to combat
the epidemic which also provides specific proof of the circulating EHEC strain
O104:H4
++++
The start-up company Spreelabs of Freie Universität Berlin
receives award in the business plan competition Science4Life Venture Cup
2011 for its temperature reference plate also named “DNA Thermometer”,
which has been registered for patent.
JULY 2011
Metanomics Health officially launches its Energy Metabolite Platform, a
unique target platform based on metabolite profiling of the energy status of
a biological system
AUGUST 2011
ProBioGen licences its innovative GlymaxX
®
technology to Boehringer Ingel-
heim
++++
co.don AG cultivates cartilage cell transplants for the Asklepios