Word: biotechs
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...example, faculty-launched Biogen Idec—the third-largest biotech firm in the world—employs 1,400 in the Boston area...
Ultimately, however, the only way to make flu-vaccine supplies more reliable may be to get rid of the chicken eggs. Several companies are studying methods of growing the virus in mammalian-cell cultures, and at least one biotech company is experimenting with using genetic-engineering techniques to streamline the process even further. But this kind of research takes a lot of resources and may lead to vaccines that are even more expensive to produce. In any event, the newer production techniques probably wouldn't be available for at least a decade...
Echeverri confesses that Dresden at first seemed like a long shot as a place to create a world-class biotech company with an international research culture. The city was still "a bit backward," he says, and locals hardly spoke English. But Max Planck and the federal and state governments were pulling hard to make it work. When Cenix arrived in Dresden in 2001, it had 11 employees. By the end of that year, it had more than doubled that number and boasted scientists from eight countries. "It has been easy to attract essentially any nationality here, with perhaps two exceptions...
Before Christophe Echeverri decided to spin his postdoctoral project into a biotech company called Cenix BioScience in 1999, he hesitated, fearing the switch from lab coat to business suit was a "move over to the dark side." Echeverri had been invited to turn the research he was doing at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg into a commercial venture under the well-endowed wing of the Max Planck Institute, Germany's elite scientific research body. Echeverri didn't hesitate long, seeing the opportunity as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to prove that his theories actually worked. So when...
...creation of Cenix was not only a big switch for Canadian-born Echeverri, who loved the world of pure science. It also marks a shift for the venerable Max Planck Institute, which in Dresden is charting a new course to make Germany a major player in biotech research and development. Cenix is steaming in the right direction. "We're part of the wave of development that happened when the government and investment community made the push into biotech," says Echeverri, 35, his dark eyes darting to his cell phone to check text messages. "This year we're going to make...