Today, our Roche top scientists, including Prof. Dr. Hans Clevers, Prof. Gijs van den Brink, and Valerie Hepp, welcomed a delegation from Dutch academic institutions, the biotech industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Health~Holland, and Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (RVO). The main objective of this meeting was to strengthen the ties between the Dutch and Swiss scientific lifescience ecosystems. Also present were our Duch Ambassador in Switzerland, Karin Mössenlechner, and Honorary Consul in Basel, Peter Groenen. During the meeting, Ms. Mössenlechner emphasized the close ties between both countries and looked forward to further collaboration following this mission. Delegation leader Hans Schikan hopes that this week will result in new public-private partnerships and friendships between Switzerland and the Netherlands. At our headquarters in Basel, discussions revolved around the opportunities and challenges in life sciences and the role of companies like Roche. Prof. Clevers shared his experience from his time at Harvard, where high-quality research took place but also intense competition prevailed. In the Netherlands, there is a culture of more collaboration among scientists but less emphasis on commercializing discoveries. Prof. Van den Brink emphasized the importance of fundamental research for Dutch research institutions, where they excel. He stressed the need for adequate funding for this. Roche itself focuses on translational research, with numerous publications in 2023, resulting in the rapid development of promising discoveries into experimental drugs that can be taken to the clinic, often in collaboration with Dutch university hospitals. Clevers and Van den Brink advocate for a change in mentality at Dutch university hospitals to support and commercialize scientific discoveries, as encouraged in Switzerland. Collaboration with companies is essential in this regard. Valérie Hepp led a discussion on the importance of partnering with companies to scale up scientific discoveries into globally available drugs. For Roche, collaboration is crucial given the complexity of the development process. Advancing the innovation ecosystem in the Netherlands is a high priority, because we have dropped 1 spot almost every year in the #GlobalInnovationIndex, from nr 4 in the world in 2019 to number 7 in 2023. And who has been nr 1 every single year? Switzerland! Roche develops many therapies from end-to-end, but we also believe strongly in partnering, in all shapes and forms, to get the best out of science, startups and international pharma companies. Together with this delegation we will make several visits in the coming days in addition to the Swiss Biotech congress. More to come! https://lnkd.in/dmjKhBWs #ConnectingEcosystems #InnovativeTherapiesDevelopment #RVO #NLEmbassyinSwitserland Roche Nederland Ehab Youssef Tjerk Balk Joost Geenen Rick Vreman Barend van Bergen Vereniging Innovatieve Geneesmiddelen
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1wNicely summarized Robert! Best of success this week. Looking forward to new connections for future collaborations and partnerships! 💪🏻👍🏻👍🏻