The Dutch Life Sciences & Health Sector
The Dutch life sciences & health sector contributes to Health (society) and Wealth (economy) of The Netherlands. This page goes more into detail how this sector is built up and supported by the organizations around the biotech companies in the sector.
- Facts & figures
How the Dutch is cluster performing on some of the key indicators. - Science Park organizations
An overview of which regional organizations provide facilities and services to companies in the life sciences sector. The Dutch life sciences landscape: - Build, Bundle, Benefit
Dutch academia and leading industry players, both large and small, have teamed up with the government to help boost life science and healthcare innovations. - Regiegroep LSH
Information about the regiegroep LSH and the Life Sciences Health Topsectorplan
Facts & Figures
In the Life Sciences Outlook 2011, the Dutch cluster was monitored on these 6 key indicators.
Summary of cluster performance (2009) (source: Life Sciences Outlook 2011)
SIZE
- Number of companies: 314(+5%)
- Employment: 24.255 people (+0.7%)
OUTPUT
- Revenue: 18.7 b€(+3%)
- Number of products:104(+12%)
INPUT
- Public investment: 248 m€(-0.1%)
- Private investment raised: 622 m€(+272%)
Download the Life Sciences Outlook 2011 here for a full overview of these key indicators and the Dutch performance in international context.
Regional life sciences organizations
- NV Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij
- Health Valley (Nijmegen)
- Healthy Ageing Network Northern Netherlands
- Amsterdamse Bio Med Cluster
- Immunovalley
- Leiden Bio Science Park
- Lifeteczone Brabant
- NV Industriebank LIOF
- Medical Delta
- Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij Oost NV
- Science Port Holland
- Spring-Board
- Life Sciences Park Oss
- Maastricht Health Campus
- Noord Nederlandse Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij
- Utrecht Science Park
The Dutch life sciences landscape: Build, Bundle, Benefit
Dutch academia and leading industry players, both large and small, have teamed up with the government to help boost life science and healthcare innovations. A number of considerable initiatives based on three pillars:
- Building top quality research infrastructure
- Bundling top research groups in academia and industry to create critical mass
- Realizing the benefit for both society (health) and the Dutch economy (wealth)
Science shapes our minds
Overview of Dutch Universities:
• Wageningen University (life sciences, health and nutrition)
• Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR)
• Universiteit Leiden (LEI)
• Universiteit Maastricht (UM)
• Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (Radboud)
• Tilburg University
• Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
• Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RU)
• Universiteit Utrecht (UU)
• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
• Open Universiteit (OU)
Three technical universities:
• Technische Universiteit Delft (TUD)
• Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TUe)
• Universiteit Twente (UT)
The Netherlands has two bodies of representation for the knowledge institutes, one for the Universities the VSNU and one for the university medical centers, the NFU.
VSNU
The VSNU represents the shared interests of the fourteen research universities in the Netherlands in the fields of research, education, knowledge transfer, business operations, human resource management and international policy.
NFU
The University Medical Centers (UMCs) of the Netherlands combine university patient care with medical, biomedical and healthcare research and the education and training of doctors, medical researchers and other healthcare workers. These eight organisations are the result of the merger of the Netherlands' university hospitals and medical faculties. With some 60,000 employees working to advance medical knowledge and improve patient care, the UMCs are the largest care and knowledge institutions in the Netherlands.
Building top quality research infrastructure
Netherlands Genomics Initiative - The existing top quality life science research infrastructure is further strengthened by fundamental genomics research, carried out by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative and the set up of biobanks (the Parelsnoer project).
The Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI) coordinates research in various genomics fields, building an infrastructure to achieve true breakthroughs in the fields of health, food and nutrition, environment and safety.
Although red biotech is the main relevant area within the life sciences and health context, NGI also coordinates (fundamental) research in green (food & agriculture, now directly linked with the Top Institute Green Genetics) and white (industrial) biotech. NGI makes infrastructure tools and expertise in basic technologies (such as bioinformatics, proteomics and metabolomics) through its national technology centers. Their infrastructure tools and expertise are available to Dutch life sciences research groups.
The Parelsnoer project (Pearl necklace: biobanks) - Eight academic Medical Centers work together to set up a nationwide biobank infrastructure to strengthen the Dutch scientific positioning in translational biomedical research. Clinical data as well as data on genes, proteins, metabolites and tissue, will be stored in databases that can be used to establish a 'population laboratory' for further clinical research.
This improved infrastructure will be instrumental in validating existing and new therapies, and will help improve the efficiency of the drug development process. All initiatives build on the existing high quality groundwork completed by Dutch scientists in universities and knowledge institutes.
Bundle: Public Private Partnerships
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) combine top research groups with large multinationals and high tech start-ups, in order to develop better therapies.
Improvements in health and healthcare require innovations in Diagnosis, Drugs and Devices. All three D's are covered by initiatives geared to the 'top institute' concept: the Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (CTMM) focuses on Diagnosis, TI Pharma focuses on Drugs, and the Biomedical Materials program (BMM) concentrates on Devices. To learn more about the large number of projects in these consortia, visit the website:
- Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (CTMM)
CTMM has a total of 107 partners, of which 22 academic partners, 85 industrial partners and 4 supporting foundations. - Top Institute Pharma
In total TI Pharma initiated 49 multilateral consortia working on projects ranging in size from EUR 2 to 18 million (over 4-5 years). TI Pharma has 28 academic partners: all Dutch universities and medical centers, and knowledge institutes like NKI and TNO and 45 industrial participants: half global companies, half small and medium sized enterprises. - Biomedical Materials program (BMM)
BMM has a total of 36 partners of which 12 academic partners, 22 industrial partners and 2 supporting foundations. (source 2009 annual report)
Benefit: Life Sciences & Health
The Life Sciences & Health platform initiative provides the necessary framework of criteria for the use of new knowledge. Bottlenecks that hinder the conversion of knowledge into marketable products are being addressed by:
- Providing a balanced mix of equity and debt to help ventures bridge the investment gap.
- Supporting collaboration outside the scope of the PPPs through conditional grants to joint initiatives and assisting with access to (shared) facilities.
- Improving the Dutch positioning through measures aimed at HR, entrepreneurship, the regulatory climate, communication, marketing, etc.
The 'Build - Bundle - Benefit' framework will help the Netherlands position itself as a leading player in the life sciences industry as well as establish an investment climate that is attractive to foreign companies.
Regiegroep life sciences & health
What used to be the High Profile Group (HPG), evolved into the Regiegroep life sciences & health in 2011. Go direct to the Regiegroep website.
The Regiegroep has published the Cahier 4. Read more on Cahier 4 the Regiegroep website.
Mapping the Future
The HPG was formed to advise on future organization and direction of the Dutch Life Sciences & Health Initiative and gives recommendations regarding the opportunities, hurdles and future of the sector. The HPG has actively contributed to the development of the Life Sciences & Health ‘topsector’ plan.
Download a pdf version of the Topsectorplan
One of the first actions to realize the 'Topsectorplan' has been the start of the 'Regiegroep life sciences & health'. Visit the website of the Regiegroep and get introduced with the members.
The following people take part in the regiegroep:
- Rob van Leen, multinationals (DSM), chairman Regiegroep and Kernteam
- Geert Blijham, university medical centers, doctor
- Clemens van Blitterswijk, professor Universiteit Twente and entrepreneur
- Jeroen van Breda Vriesman, insurers (Achmea/Eureko)
- Fred Dom, medtech entrepreneur (FlexGen)
- Henk van Houten, multinationals (Philips)
- Paul Huijts, (Ministry of VWS), member of the Kernteam
- Len de Jong, medtech entrepeneur (EnrafNonius)
- Eduard Klasen, Academic Medical Centers (NFU)
- René Kuijten, venture capital (LSP)
- Colja Laane, Managing director Netherlands Genomics Initiative
- Roland Lageveen, biotech entrepreneur (IQ Corporation)
- Sijbolt Noorda, Association of Universities in the Netherlands (VSNU)
- Tom Oostrom, charities and patient organisations (Nierstichting)
- Anton Pijpers, scientist and link with veterinary (Utrecht University)
- Joep Pluymen, multinationals (MSD)
Membership is personal.
- browse the LSH cloud
- Click to enlarge
