At the traditional BioM end-of-year dinner, this time host Prof. Horst Domdey looked back not only on an eventful year for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, but also on a quarter of a century as managing director of BioM. After 25 years, he will hand over the management to his successor, Prof. Ralf Huss, on January 1, 2023.
At the end of the year, numerous representatives of the biotech and pharmaceutical industry met again at the BioM Dinner in Munich. The main topic this year was the farewell of Prof. Horst Domdey and the introduction of Prof. Ralf Huss as the future managing director of the biotech cluster management organization BioM.
In his welcoming words, Bavaria's Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Roland Weigert honored Prof. Domdey's achievements: "With his outstanding commitment, Horst Domdey has made ground-breaking contributions to biotechnology and Bavaria. With immense drive and vision, he has dedicated himself to the interests of the industry for more than a quarter of a century. He has set the course for the support of biotechnology in Bavaria in numerous decisive ways. Today, the Biotech Center in Martinsried is a leading and renowned competence cluster that sets standards worldwide. Domdey's name will always be closely associated with this impressive success story. I thank Horst Domdey, whom I have personally come to know as a highly competent, modest and humorous person, for his commitment and wish him all the best for the future, many wonderful moments in the new phase of his life and, above all, good health."
Subsequently, Weigert handed over the funding certificate for the establishment of an early-stage incubator in Martinsried to BioM. The infrastructure project will initially be funded with 8.5 million euros over five years by the Bavarian State Ministry for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy and will be managed by BioM.
Based on BioM's expertise with its unique and specialized offering for founders in life sciences, the new incubator project supports pre-seed and early-stage start-up teams with a structured incubation and coaching program, pre-equipped lab workspaces, a co-working offering, meeting and event space, as well as numerous training and networking opportunities.
In his review, Prof. Horst Domdey focused on the great success of the Munich biotech region. "Over the past 25 years, the Munich Biotech Cluster has developed into one of the leading biotechnology locations in Germany and Europe. The transfer of research into application in particular has always been a major concern of mine. I am therefore very pleased with the record of the many spin-offs and successful companies. I am convinced that the region will continue to produce numerous ground-breaking innovations and success stories, and I am excited about further developments."
In his speech, Prof. Huss explained his future visions for the BioM network organization and the Munich and Bavarian Biotechnology Cluster. He emphasized: "I am very much looking forward to starting my new task and, together with the BioM team, I will continue to support all the players in our unique network of science, research and entrepreneurship in driving forward translation and thus the medicine of the future. To do so, we need further innovations. These are generated by ideas, which we must think of in an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach. Only in this way combined with diversity and creativity will we achieve progress."
Prof. Huss has many years of experience in academic research and in international pharmaceutical companies. As of January 1, 2023, the pathologist and Director of the Institute for Digital Medicine (IDM) and Deputy Medical Director at Augsburg University Hospital will take over as Managing Director of BioM Biotech Cluster Development GmbH. Prof. Horst Domdey, who co-founded the cluster organization and successfully led it for 25 years, will be retiring.
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Gallery: Impressions of the BioM Dinner 2022 on December 8, 2022