Italian and Massachusetts Biotechnology Associations build Foundations for Life Sciences Collaboration

Assobiotec, the Italian Association for the development of biotechnology, which is part of Federchimica, and the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MassBio), which represents the bioindustry of Massachusetts, signed yesterday a Memorandum of Understanding, an agreement of cooperation to promote and develop relationships and partnerships between their enterprises active in the field of Life Sciences.

The signing of the Memorandum (BioBridge Global Gateway), in a ceremony held in Milan, at the headquarters of the Lombardy Region, was attended by the President of the Lombardy Region, Roberto Formigoni, by Robert DeLeo, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and by the representatives of the two associations, Daniela Jabes, member of the Assobiotec’s Board, delegated to International Relations and Andrea Messuti, MassBio’s honorary representative in Italy, representing Robert Coughlin, President of MassBio.

The agreement with MassBio follows a similar agreement signed by Assobiotec in 2011 in Washington, with PaBio, the biotech association of Pennsylvania, which was strongly supported by the former Italian Ambassador in Washington, Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata, presently Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“Cooperation with other clusters around the world is essential to our industry in Massachusetts, as we aim to reduce the time and costs associated with bringing life-changing treatments and cures to patients, and we thank Speaker DeLeo for his commitment to our industry,” said Robert Coughlin, President & CEO of MassBio, a 600+ member trade association. “We are excited about our formalized relationship with Assobiotec, which will enable our member organizations to connect more directly with a significant biotech region.”

“With this initiative we aim to facilitate collaboration in research and business between Italy and one of the regions with the highest biotech growth in the United States, ” said Alessandro Sidoli, President of Assobiotec. With about 400 companies active in biotechnology, Italy comes third in Europe, after Germany and United Kingdom, in number of pure biotech companies (248).

Massachusetts is among the leading international clusters in the biotechnology industry with over 500 biopharma companies and 53,000 employees. The industry in Massachusetts has grown by 42% over the past ten years. On a per capita basis, Massachusetts leads the U.S. in venture capital and federal basic research investment.

Source

EuropaBio, press release, 2012-11-13.

Supplier

Assobiotec (Italian Association for the Development of Biotechnology)
Federchimica
Massachusetts Biotechnology Council

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