The Danish government is working on several legislations to attract private investments in the area of new technologies for lifesciences sector from developing countries like India and China. These will include robotics and healthcare IT that will help to speed up drug discovery and monitor clinical trials.
A set of guidelines for patients and public-private co-operations on research and innovation in healthcare sector focusing on pharma, biotech and medical technology are devised to this effect and are in the process of being passed in the Danish Parliament only to create opportunities for potential investors.
A few months ago, its Ministry for Interior and Health was able to pass a legislation to attract private investors. Early next year, Denmark will be entitled to the EU presidency and its government is gearing come up with a slew of initiatives under its ‘Healthy Innovation’ gameplan. Some of these would be to reduce the review period for clinical trials to 30 days to minimum of 7 days and a national strategy for tele medicine to increase the scope for medical tourism.
The Danish government is looking at companies in India and China to set up operations in the country and capitalize on the tax incentives extended for foreign investors. It is also keen to attract the highly skilled scientific and technical personnel who can have an opportunity to work at the advanced labs and contribute to innovation.
Denmark has invested considerably in bio-medical infrastructure. The country’s strengths lie in drug development, nano sciences, vaccine development, personalised medicine, proteomics and for conducting of clinical trials. The pharmaceutical segment is its highest export revenue generator. Between 1997 and 2010, the country was the also the largest exporter of medicines valued at 40 billion Danish Krone. Its drug pipeline ranks third in the world after UK and Germany. It is the third best overall biotech sector in the world with expertise in oncology, neurosciences, metabolic diseases, inflammatory and infectious diseases.
The Danish government has reserved 41.1 billion Danish Krone (DKK) for the implementation of a new national hospital plan to provide better treatment, cost efficient healthcare and a conducive environment for research and development. Under the ABT Foundation it has set apart 3 billion DKK. The Renewable Foundation investment is to the tune of 750 million DKK for developing green and welfare technologies.
“We introduced the ‘Healthy Innovation’ strategy to woo potential investors from the developing world. A legislation has been redrafted for medical devices. In the area of clinical trials, it would also make it mandatory for hospitals or clinical research organisations to maintain Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) of patients or volunteers signing up for a human study. This would bring in more transparency during the conduct of clinical trials. Further the ministry’s efforts to reduce the review period for clinical trails from a month to a week would allow more potential research companies to opt for Denmark as their destination for clinical trials,” Denmark’s Minister for Interior and Health Bertel Haarder stated during his interaction with the media at Copenhagen organised by office of Invest in Denmark.
“The new clinical trial legislation would instill ample confidence among CROs to carry out animal and human studies in the country. We intend to have a considerable share of the clinical trial outsourcing business from global markets. The stringent regulations together with the systematic data base records of Danish Health Registries would enable researchers monitor the patients across time, regions and sectors,” he added.
