HMR Sets Up Biotech Research Site In Germany

Hoechst Marion Roussel, the pharmaceutical arm of Germany's Hoechstgroup, has spent 19 million Deutschemarks initially to set up a center for genome research at a site near Munich. The center, which has been officially opened in the presence of the Bavarian premier Edmund Stober and the federal Research Minister Juergen Ruettgers, will work in close collaboration with HMR's parallel center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, a joint venture with Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The German center is starting activity with projects on the causal treatment of Alzheimer's disease, arthrosis, bacterial infection and certain cardiovascular system diseases. Mr Stober said he welcomed HMR's decision to site the center in Munich - a move which he said brought the area's aim of creating the largest biotechnology park in Europe much nearer.