Drug development booms in Medicon Valley
Av Medicon Valley is a cluster of companies, universities and hospitals in the Copenhagen and Skåne regions. It develops more medicines than any other life science cluster in the EU, except for Paris. Overall, 100 companies in the region are actively developing a total of 502 medicines. These figures are presented in the State of Medicon Valley 2024 report produced by Medicon Valley Alliance (MVA) in collaboration with Citeline.
“We have a truly powerful ecosystem, and when your ecosystem is strong, it becomes even stronger and more powerful when you nurture it,” MVA CEO Anette Steenberg told Life Science Sweden.
Novo Nordisk is the company in the region with the most compounds under development, with more than twice as many drugs in the pipeline as the runner-up, Lundbeck. In third place is the fast-growing biotech company Genmab. Most development is taking place in the therapeutic field of solid tumours. Diabetes and obesity are two other fields in which many drugs are being developed in Medicon Valley.
The report, presented at the MVA Annual Summit in Copenhagen on Monday, also shows a strong segment of companies that manufacture or research under contracts for other companies. As for the number of CDMOs, Medicon Valley boasts more than any other pharmaceutical cluster in Europe. Steenberg calls CDMOs the “golden vein” of the biopharma industry. CDMO stands for Contract Development Manufacturing Organizations, and the region is home to major players such as Polypeptide, Sever Pharma and AGC Biologics.
| Top 5 Medicon Valley companies based on portfolio size | |
| Company | Number of drugs being actively developed |
| Novo Nordisk | 109 |
| Lundbeck | 48 |
| Genmab | 31 |
| Leo Pharma | 30 |
| Alk-Abello | 14 |
| Source: State of Medicon Valley 2024 | |
“Everyone is talking about Novo Nordisk’s growth, which is fantastic. However, there is more going on in life science, and it’s not all about Novo Nordisk and Astra Zeneca,” says Anette Steenberg.
In her opinion, the companies that research, develop and manufacture drugs under contract have been crucial to Medicon Valley’s success.
“They are valuable to the larger pharmaceutical companies as they can provide assistance when the pharmaceutical companies lack sufficient manufacturing capacity,” she says.
“Minor and medium-sized biopharmaceutical companies couldn’t possibly do all the research and development themselves, so CDMOs are absolutely essential for them.”
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