Health science businesses and their rush to… Liege

09/02/2018

Within the space of a few months, the Liege region has succeeded in attracting biotechnology and medical technology companies from around the world. This massive arrival has helped to create more than a hundred new jobs every year and offers greater international visibility for Liege's assets.

Indeed, we are witnessing a true mass migration to Liege, a region deemed to be an ideal and prosperous environment by many large biotechnological companies. This is the case for two French companies PDC Line Pharma (immuno-oncology) and BCI Pharma (targeted therapies), as well as medical technological companies, including the American firm Mitral Technologies (interventional cardiology) and the Austrian company Miracor medical (specialising in medical devices).

Overall, the province of Liege boasts 72 companies working in health science. According to Marc Foidart, Deputy General Manager at Meusinvest, the Liege-based public investment fund: "on average, a new biotech or medtech company locates to the region every two months", and he adds: "that's five to seven companies a year over the past five years". And, in terms of the number of direct jobs in these biotechs and medtechs, the figures too have risen, progressing from 1,100 in 2008 to about 1,750 in 2015, not to mention the 300 freelance workers (sales directors and CEO for example). In other words, the 50 to 60 new positions created by the industry ten years ago now stands at more than a hundred. This explains why, for Marc Foidart "health science is gradually becoming the largest investment sector for Meusinvest".

But that's not all. Liege is also starting to take an interest in the growing number of companies working in other health science specialities, in particular neuroscience, oncology and inflammatory illnesses. However, this rush to Liege is not a coincidence. Local stakeholders have intentionally focused on the health science sector in order to rebuild Liege's image and highlight the region's assets. These include the CHU (the University Hospital Centre of Liège) and its cellular and gene therapy laboratory, the University of Liege and its spin-off Vitricell, which offers solutions for the cryopreservation of cells, Giga (for fundamental research in collaboration with companies) and a future oncology centre. Finally, equally important, the B2H (Bridge2Health) structure set up by the University of Liege, Meusinvest, the CHU and the Walloon Region. This structure, which posts online all the knowledge and know-how developed in Liege, aims to facilitate and encourage international research and also industrial partnerships.