Bioindustry in the Rhine-Neckar region is backed up by BioRN a new cluster initiative led by Roche, Merck, BASF, and Abbott all of which having their R&D centres in the area. These companies are joined by some other 40 small and medium-sized companies like Schwabe Pharma and gelatine manufacturer GELITA, as well as Heidelberg University, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and European Molecular Biology Laboratory branch at the same city. BioRN is also the name of the project management established by a consortium of regional economic promoters and led by Christian Tidona. With initial funding of €40m by the German Research Ministry, bmbf, BioRN has won industry commitment to spend another €40m on 35 projects within the next five years. These will be in the areas of stem cells, biomarkers, start-up incubation, and continuous education.

When presenting the initiative to the press during Bio-Europe at Mannheim, Jürgen Schwiezer, CEO of Roche Diagnostics, underlined the importance of big industry players to put innovation from research institutes and start-up businesses into practice on a large scale. “We are in urgent need of new business ideas, concepts, and projects” Schwiezer said adding that “we also need global players such as Roche, Merck Serono and Abbott, which have both the financial capacity needed for longterm development and marketing, as well as the necessary management experience.” Friedrich Richter, responsible for Drug product development within Abbot’s Global Pharma R&D pointed t the fact that Abbott Germany is the largest affiliate outside the United States. It employs around 4.000 employees of which 700 are scientists. Referring to stem cell scientist Andreas Trumpp, who recently returned home from Lausanne to Heidelberg and is designated Head of ”I-Stem”, one of BioRN’s flagship projects, Bernd Kirschbaum, VP of global R&D Merck Serono, told the media about Merck’s interests in stem cell research: ”It’s really important that you have these day-to-day interactions and somebody just next door.” I-Stem is to discover mechanisms of cancer stem cells and finding ways to destroy them. In the publicly funded project Merck, which has its oncology research in nearby Darmstadt, is partnering up with Roche, DKFZ and private investor Dietmar Hopp. In addition Kirschbaum expects major synergies from DKFZ collaborating with the National Cancer Institute at Bethesda (US): ”The BioRN region now has the chance to become a world center for cancer stem cell research.” Beyond excellent academic science in the Rhine-Neckar region Hans Kast, CEO of BASF Plant Science sees industry as bringing critical mass to the bioindustry cluster. He highlighted key contributions of so-called ‘green” biotechnology to developing of diagnostics and pharmaceuticals. He offered as an example HTS profiling of metabolites initially established for plant screening. He seized the opportunity to appeal to policy-makers in Europe to end regulatory tug-of-wars about plant biotechnology and said: ”Innovation goes beyond research and development and funding through our government. It means marketing of products.” wk