The three-day business initiation visit, in partnership with the Malaysian Organisation of Pharmaceutical Industries (MOPI) and the National Institutes of Biotechnology Malaysia (NIBM), began with a conference that saw 10 pharmaceutical producers from across Germany presenting their solutions and technologies in the healthcare sector.
The objective of the Pharmaceuticals & Medical Biotechnology Industry: Solutions from Germany conference and business matching was aimed at promoting knowledge sharing of trusted solutions from Germany, a market well-regarded for life sciences in Europe, to Malaysian healthcare companies as well as the opportunity for both countries to meet and collaborate to foster a diverse and thriving pharma ecosystem.
The ‘Health Made in Germany’ initiative spearheaded by Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI) within the framework of the Foreign Market Entry Programme supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Change (BMWK) was introduced to make industry access easier. Its goal is to promote the German healthcare sector through international networking activities to benefit Malaysian partner companies and German companies.
GTAI Managing Director Yildiz Götze who heads the Department of Internationalisation Funding Programmes spoke of the importance of providing a pathway to optimise support for German companies in locating good market entry abroad.
Before the main agenda commenced, MGCC conducted a short but useful briefing on cultural norms in Malaysia for the German delegates to provide them with an overview of Malaysian business etiquette for their trip.
The full-day session was attended by some 100 participants comprised of medical experts, importers and distributors, researchers, doctors and pharmacists.
Some solutions that were spotlighted included innovative pharmaceuticals and natural products, regenerative treatments, and advanced diagnostics and treatments.
Axel Lohse, Deputy Director of Health Made in Germany under GTAI, who marked his first Malaysian visit said the country is an interesting market for German healthcare companies.
Last year, his team was exploring new markets for delegations in the pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology industry with a special focus on small and medium-sized companies.
“The Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions are of huge interest because this is the thriving economic hub of the world now, it’s becoming more important and German companies are interested in the region,” Lohse told MGCC.
This year, Health Made in Germany chose to have a closer look at Singapore and Malaysia due to the countries’ good performances in healthcare.
“Malaysia was of huge interest to the companies because it shows a rise in expenditure on healthcare and awareness in healthcare as more of the population now are concerned about prevention, diagnosis and therapeutics.
“And with this growing income, they spend on themselves for a better life and their family – it’s a window of opportunity to visit this beautiful country,” he added.
Commenting on the conference, Lohse said it was worthwhile making the trip to Malaysia to attend the event – he particularly enjoyed the format of the conference which was divided into three sessions according to clusters of the industry.
“This in itself is a form of matchmaking – there are groups and communities in the industry that are eager to know about the parallel industry in Germany. Additionally having a panel discussion made it more interactive allowing audience members to ask questions so that was good,” Lohse said.
In addition to the conference, MGCC also coordinated a two-day business matching event that saw German solution providers from the pharmaceutical field meeting potential Malaysian companies to manufacture, market and distribute their products.
On Day 2, after a morning of B2B meetings, the delegates visited the Centre for Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine (CTERM) at the University of Malaya’s Faculty of Medicine, including a facility tour. This was followed by a dialogue session with the National Institute of Biotechnology Malaysia (NIMB), the Malaysian Institute of Pharmaceuticals and Nutraceuticals (IPharm), CTERM and the Bioeconomy Development Corporation.
On the third and final day, the delegates arrived at Duopharma Biotech Bhd, a leading pharmaceutical company established in 1978 for a facility visit followed by individual B2B meetings.
The technologies presented displayed a wide range of capabilities from Germany including:
Session 1: Innovative Pharmaceuticals and Natural Products
anteris medical GmbH – Medical device expertise and capabilities in pharma, biotech, and medtech industries focusing on product and process development, regulatory consulting, engineering, digital transformation, clinical and medical consulting.
Dr Franz Kohler Chemie GmbH – Producers of highly specialised niche products such as antidotes for delayed post-op awakening, therapeutics for intensive care including cyanide poisoning and diagnostics such as test kits for nerve agent detection.
Finzelberg GmbH & Co.KG – Developers of plant-based medicinal products with more than 100 plants and botanicals today for a wide variety of applications.
ZETA GmbH – Experts in vaccine production and large-scale cell culture
Session 2: State of the art Regenerative Treatments
acCELLerate GmbH – 20 years of experience in cell banking and assay ready cells, providing service in the areas of cell expansion, automatic dispensing, controlled rate freezing and cryostorage.
CO.DON GmbH – Global leader in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, specialising in the area of plastic surgery and orthopaedics.
Curasan AG – Pioneers in biosurgery such as bone replacement and regeneration with 30 over years of innovation track record and zero side effects recorded.
Session 3: Advanced Diagnostics and Treatments
Biofidus AG – Specialists in analysing new biological entities.
Helixor Heilmittel GmbH – The number one mistletoe therapy brand in the world with over 43 years of experience in supportive cancer therapy.
Yumab GmbH – Recombinant antibody pioneers since 1990 with 300 scientific publications.
What participants said about the conference and B2B matching
“The conference was informative; it gave us basic ideas of potential interaction with German companies and potential avenues of collaboration and building a strong relationship so that’s useful for us. Since our company provides cell-based therapies and solutions, the second session was the most useful and insightful for us.” – Sergei V. Kulemzin, Head of Cell Engineering, Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre Berhad
“All companies part of the German delegation came to Malaysia with various expectations but we all went home with a bunch of new ideas, met great people and discovered lots of business opportunities. The life sciences industry in Malaysia is certainly booming.” – Dr Oliver Wehmeier, Managing Director, acCELLerate GmbH.