"Medicon Valley" cluster emerges in Denmark

The Danish biotechnology cluster known as "Medicon Valley" has, within a short period, found itself increasingly in favor among big pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, with over 10 research institutions and 15-20 private companies engaged in pharmacogenomics. Drug discovery firms operating within the personalized medicine field in Denmark include: Genmab, Novo Nordisk, Pharmexa, Santaris Pharma and TopoTarget. In addition, diagnostics specialty firms are present in the Scandinavian country: Dako, Exiqon, FluimediX and the Medical Prognostic Institute.

Several of these Danish firms operate on an individual basis, although many are also involved in collaborative research efforts, including the Danish Center for Translational Breast Cancer Research, the siRNA Delivery Center, the Danish microRNA consortium and special research departments at the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark.

As a result, Denmark's government sent a team of participants to the Third Annual Personalized Medicine meeting in San Francisco, USA, in November, where Kaare Geil, director of knowledge and communications at the Danish Medicines Agency, took part in the panel discussion on the second day of the conference to provide a European perspective on the topic: Who Will Pay? The Economics of Personalized Medicine.