Biotop-report 2014

10

BioTOPics 47 | May 2014 

BioTOP-Report

 Biotechnology 

But they will only do so if  the general conditions for venture capital 

are significantly improved. The political decision makers seem to 

agree on this objective – now all they have to do is adopt relevant 

new laws. 

The Start-Up Capital is Booming

For many years, the Berlin-Brandenburg region has been gener-

ating international headlines as the start-up capital of  Germany. 

Hardly a week goes by without a new start-up being founded, a 

major financing round being concluded or a major corporation 

committing to act as an accelerator or incubator. The region is 

booming; it’s an international hot spot. However, this has more to 

do with IT and web-based applications start-ups. 

Till Erdmann

Managing Director Myelo Therapeutics GmbH

Dirk Pleimes

Managing Director and Chief  Medical Officer  

Myelo Therapeutics GmbH

We are a young pharmaceutical company that develops new 

therapies in fields of  application with high medical needs. With 

a clear strategy for developing our innovative active ingredient 

Myelo001 for treating chemotherapy-induced neutropenia, we 

have successfully obtained the support of  a series of  strategic 

investors, including IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Eckert Life 

Science Accelerator (ELSA) and Valenta Pharmaceuticals.

The German capital region provides a high concentration of  

science and research, clinics and business, as well as a high 

quality of  life. It is predestined to be a location for pharma-

ceutical companies. The technology parks and networks that 

are part of  the Healthcare Industries cluster represent an out-

standing infrastructure for translating the latest scientific find-

ings into innovative products. 

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

130

140

150

160

170

180

190

200

210

Agriculture/Food

Market Segments of Companies

White Biotechnology /Environmental Biotechnology

Biomedicine

'13

'04 '05 '06

'09 '10 '11 '12

'07 '08

'13

'04 '05 '06

'09 '10 '11 '12

'07 '08

'13

'04 '05 '06

'09 '10 '11 '12

'07 '08

Number of

 companies

31

14%

45

19%

204

88%

Most companies focus on biomedicine. A total of  88 % of  companies, focus primarily on development in the areas of  new diagnostics, drug development 

and associated services or technologies. 13 % of  the companies are active in the agriculture / food sector, white biotechnology / environmental 

biotechnology amounts to 19 % of  all entries. (Source: Internal survey, BioTOP database, responses from 232 companies, multiple entries, February 2014)

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BIOCOM AG  |  Lützowstraße 33–36  |  10785 Berlin | Germany

www.biocom.de  |  Tel. [phone]  |  Fax [phone]

A AT  T G A  C AC  AC G T TC  GC C GAT  A AG GA A G T T  ATG  GA A C C T

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STudieS & ConSulTinG

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AC  TC C GC A C AT  T TG  C GA GC T AGA ACG  T A A

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inTerneT

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GCC 

TGA  GC C G AT  AT C   G TA   AGG TGA  C A A

GA A 

MAGAzineS

G A  T TC  G TC  C TC AG T 

ACG 

T C A  TA G  C A A A C T

C AC T C A  AC C  C A A GGA G T T  G TA  C TA  C TG  C GC GA A C T T  AC G

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TA  GC G TC G  AC G C AC  C A A T G C  A C C

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W e   C r e AT e   k n o W l e d G e !

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G T T  A C T  AC G T C C  TGC AT G  T T G  C GA T T G   GGA AGA A A A C T C

Biocom_A4_mr1.indd   1

05.10.2011   16:22:39 Uhr

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12

BioTOPics 47 | May 2014 

BioTOP-Report

 Biotechnology 

Does this status relate at all to start-ups in the life sciences? At first 

glance, perhaps not. But take a closer look: The large number of  

players (founders, investors and incubators), the university sup-

port programs and many start-up competitions, and the range of  

various activities create a start-up-compatible atmosphere, which 

has a positive impact on the start-up scene in the life sciences. 

Putting it simply, the spillover effect is high.

There have not been as many life sciences start-ups in years as 

there were in the last half  of  fiscal year 2013/2014. And the strik-

ing thing about them is that some of  the new companies are focus-

ing on new drug development. Here are a few examples of  recent 

start-ups and their concepts:

OMEICOS Therapeutics is a spin-off  of  the Max Delbrück Cen-

ter for Molecular Medicine. It develops synthetic compounds with 

innovative modes of  action for the treatment of  various human 

diseases. The company is working on a new drug for the treat-

ment of  atrial fibrillation, the most common type of  human car-

diac arrhythmia. 

Myelo Therapeutics has developed a drug for 

the prophylactic treatment of  post-chemotherapy patients whose 

blood contains too few white blood cells (neutropenia) or platelets 

(thrombocytopenia). Venture capital investors IBB Beteiligungs-

gesellschaft with their VC Fonds Technologie Berlin, Eckert Wag-

niskapital und Frühphasenfinanzierung and JSC Valenta Phar-

maceuticals are in the company’s financing consortium. 

Amal 

Therapeutics, a company with facilities in Geneva and Berlin, is 

developing a vaccine consisting of  a recombinant protein with a 

cell-penetrating peptide acting as a vector. The unique property 

of  this platform is its ability to trigger a highly integrated, multi-epi-

topic cellular immune response to cancer cells. 

DexLeChem, a 

TU Berlin spin-off, provides development services to the chemi-

www.takeda.de

For more than 230 years, Takeda has been serving society 

with innovative medicines. Now, with new healthcare solutions 

from prevention to care and cure, we are determined to help 

even more people enjoy their lives to the fullest. Of our 30,000 

employees worldwide, 1,700 are working in Germany to 

develop, produce and market a broad range of medicines to 

help patients reclaim valuable moments of life from illness.

Our Business: Committed to Improving Health

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15.04.14   10:41

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