Foreword by Nico van meeteren
The snowball effect of the Life Sciences & Health sector
With the Christmas holiday season coming up, we are not only decorating our offices and booths. We also identified a socalled snowball effect for the Life Sciences & Health sector. First of all, we spoke to Bertholt Leeftink, former Director General of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, who contributed heavily to the enterprise policy for seven years, including the Top Sector policy at the start in 2012. During this period the Dutch economy overcame a financial and economic crisis and the strong collaboration between government, science, industry and patients has gained more mass and momentum as the snowball rolls along.
Another collaborative project that organisations are strongly committed to is the GROZ initiative. GROZ (an anagram of the Dutch word for care, ‘ZORG’) aims to support the transition of our healthcare system towards a future-proof, affordable, high-quality system that withstands the foreseen demographic demands. This fantastic initiative of sociocultural innovation is set to grow and have a major impact on the future of healthcare and our society by guiding the technological innovation of the sector.
This Health~Holland update bears witness to this snowball effect in even more aspects. Via the startups coached in the LifeSciences@Work programme that is now celebrating 10 years of success in the pioneering phase and via a recently setup international cooperation with Flanders on personalised medicine as a late stage result. The Top Sector also made a significant mark on the financial potential of the PPP Allowance: rising from almost €38 million last year to nearly €60 million this year. Another collaboration that started small but is now vitally important is the newly published bid book, highlighting the strengths of the Dutch Pharmaceutical sector. And last but not least there is the signing of the national prevention agreement.
Let’s continue the snowball effect in 2019.
Have a festive holiday season,
Nico van Meeteren, Executive director of the Top Sector Life Sciences & Health
Health~Holland Update December 2018
The holiday season calls for a festive Update. In this Update we interview Bertholt Leeftink, who had a major contributution to the strong collaborations between government, science, industry and patients. But also collaborative projects that started small like GROZ and the new international collaboration with Flanders are now of upmost importance. New items are the
bid book for the pharmaceutical industry, the national prevention agreement, and the increased financial potential of the Top Sector LSH. Read this Update and start the holiday season with inspirational gatherings and collaborations.
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