Drug Development & Research: Opportunities for Indo-German Collaboration

Mr Mukhopadhyay,

Dr Habeck,

Professor Claussen,

Mr Barbjaiya,

Mr Joshi,

Mr Wilmanns,

Mr Das,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have been in Mumbai for little more than 48 hours, yet I already feel quite at home. And I believe the other members of the delegation feel exactly the same. 

That is due, above all, to the tremendous hospitality that we have been shown here - as before in New Delhi. But it also owes something to the close network of ties that already exist between Mumbai and Hamburg. Among the many who have done excellent work in this field are Mr König, our HamburgAmbassador, as well as Hamburg’s new representative office in the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce.

The third reason is quite simply that Mumbai, being a transport hub, centre of foreign trade, port city, banking and media metropolis, has many similarities with Hamburg.

At any rate, I find Mumbai a most impressive example of a thriving city, a city that never sleeps; it is an Arrival City” on which many newcomers pin their hopes of prosperity and a good life.

Scientific research - especially in the medical and pharmaceutical fields - is part of its appeal. It is a subject for the future, and a future market, but also a sector that is no longer imaginable without intensive international collaboration. That is what this 7th Hanseatic India Colloquium is all about,

and I am sure that you will find opportunities for Indo-German collaboration.

Because, Ladies and Gentlemen, Smart minds search in North Germany”. That is a quotation, and one that Dr Habeck knows too.

It has two meanings. It will come as no surprise to you that in German, as in English, it is possible to play on words and double meanings.

Smart minds search in North Germany”. One meaning is the search for good jobs. At the Life Sciences North Job Exchange” companies and potential job candidates can advertise what they have to offer each other.

But the sentence could also be taken to mean that smart minds search in the sense of doing research in North Germany.

If that is the case, and if it applies in particular to the drug development and research sector, then I, as Mayor of the north German city of Hamburg, am more than satisfied.

What can Indian companies and researchers in the medical and life sciences sectors look for in north Germany? And vice versa?

Medical engineering - partly because we, and several other European countries, have ageing populations - is an industry with huge growth potential. 

We are now accustomed to speaking of life sciences”. They include medical engineering, biotechnology and pharmacy. Applied life sciences are an innovative core aspect of the healthcare industry. For Hamburg and its metropolitan region it represents one of the major fields for the future. Apart from anything else, the industry is crisis-proof. Because, unfortunately, there will always be illness, and people are living longer.

In recent years, Hamburg has continually sharpened its profile as a science centre, and especially as a site where innovative medical engineering is at home.

We attach special importance to cooperation between major Hamburg hospitals and the medical engineering industry. Here, state of the art research, technology and medicine combine to produce results that benefit all concerned. I’m sure that my fellow citizen of Hamburg, Dr. Mukhopadhyay, the founder and director of ELGA Biotech, would agree with me there.

And because life sciences are so very important, political bodies cross borders to cooperate too. Hamburg and its northern neighbour, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, cooperate in many areas. But only over the past seven years has the first cluster formed that functions in operational senses across the borders of two states in the German Federation. Collectively known as Life Sciences North”, the cluster operates on the national and international stage.

It comprises political and academic circles plus some 500 companies, ranging from global players to mid-sized firms to small, innovative enterprises. The universities, technical institutes and two teaching hospitals, the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf and the University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein, are important foundations of academic research within the Life Sciences North cluster.

Life Sciences North is coordinated by the North German Life Sciences Agency Norgenta. Which brings me to another fellow-citizen, Dr Habeck, who welcomed us so warmly just a few minutes ago. His agency works successfully as the projects coordinator and services provider facilitating life science activities in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

India, by contrast, is not our direct neighbour, but we have learnt how to overcome distances. Education and science are areas in which Hamburg has especially close relations with India. For many years our universities have been cooperating with India’s elite universities and research institutions. Collaboration ranges from visiting students to joint teaching programmes to research projects. Grants are available to Indian students; there are exchange programmes and joint projects.

India’s booming economy opens up enormous opportunities to north German life sciences enterprises. Of course we are aware that this industry’s double-digit growth rate greatly benefits the up-and-coming Indian economy. And that the biotechnology sector has set a shining example with growth rates of more than 20 per cent - and that India’s pharmaceutical industry is following in its footsteps. This offers German companies excellent opportunities for cooperation.

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory, to name but one, is an international research organization, supported by 20 European member states and Australia. The EMBL Hamburg Unit is situated on the campus of the German Synchrotron Research Centre, which hosts leading facilities for synchrotron radiation and free electron lasers. EMBL Hamburg provides top-notch research infrastructures in structural biology for thousands of users from around the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

in Hamburg, one person in eight is employed in the healthcare industry. Every year around 12 million people attend Hamburg’s out-patient facilities. Hamburg hospitals treat some 400,000 ailments each year - the patients come from the surrounding regions as well as Hamburg. This makes the healthcare industry one of the city’s major economic fundamentals.

I’ve already mentioned our teaching hospital, the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf. We shall shortly be hearing Mr Sankara_naryanan talk to us about Eppendorf India. The name of the company says much about what it does: and indeed, Eppendorf AG started life as the workshop for medical equipment located within the grounds of the hospital.

Sometimes, big trees from little acorns grow.” But not always by themselves! But when Mr Mukhopadhyay, for example, asks visitors to his website, 

Do you have any questions concerning venturing into the Indian Market?”

it is an invitation to put specific queries to which answers are sure to be found. Conversely, the same is true for ventures into the German market.

I hope you will have in-depth talks and arrive at many, beneficial Indo-German collaboration agreements. 

Thank you very much.

The spoken word applies.