Press release
1 October 2007
The German company Sartorius Stedim Biotech is about to establish a Nordic head office in the Copenhagen Region. Sartorius delivers process equipment for the biotech industry.
- The trend within biotech production is towards disposable solutions in plastic in stead of the traditional steel tanks and pipes. We believe that Danish biotech together with the biotech industry in the other Nordic countries will be among the first to switch over their production facilities to ‘disposable bioprocessing’, says general manager Henrik Krogen from Sartorius Stedim Nordic A/S.
The German company Sartorius recently acquired the French company Stedim S.A. which develops and produces plastic material for the pharmaceutical industry. The new company Sartorius Stedim Biotech S.A. is quoted on the French stock exchange and is among the absolutely world leaders of disposable processing equipment for biotech production.
An environmental friendly solution
The bioprocesses involve living cells and require – apart from very advanced control – extremely costly clean-up of the production equipment. It is cost-consuming not least in energy and working hours. Moreover, the clean-up process itself has an environmental impact as many chemicals are needed.
- Therefore it is much less expensive and more environmentally compatible to dispose of the production equipment after each production. To small and newly established companies this is also a more flexible and less costly solution, says Henrik Krogen. Sartorius counts Novo Nordisk and Bavarian Nordic among its Danish customers.
Booming biotech
That Sartorius Stedim elected Copenhagen in preference to Stockholm as the centre of its Nordic activities is according to Henrik Krogen due to the fact that Copenhagen and Medicon Valley from the company’s point of view is one of the strongest and most interesting regions in Europe at the moment with regards to biotech. According to Henrik Krogen the region presents the best opportunities for financing in the Nordic countries. Added to this is an extremely strong academic basis in the entire Øresund Region.
- Ideas are booming in this region. Nor should we disregard that we may learn a lot. Of this reason alone it is important for us to be here, says Henrik Krogen.
Presently and with assistance from Copenhagen Capacity he is about to establish the new Nordic set-up. At the regional office Henrik Krogen expects to appoint up to ten staff to begin with. In the long term perhaps double.
The head office is located in the German university town of Göttingen. Here the Sartorius family started the company in 1870. Traditionally the company has focused on precision weights and filtering. Today Sartorius employs 4,500 staff and the 2007 turnover is estimated to be over 600 mio. euro.
Further information
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General Manager Henrik krogen, Sartorius, tel: +45 40 11 69 57
Business Development Manager Vibeke Dalhoff, Copenhagen Capacity, tel: +45 33 26 87 22
