hen the XX (20th) International Congress of Genetics gets under way in Berlin in July 2008, attendees will discover outside the conference hall a larger version of what's going on inside the conference hall. The Berlin-Brandenburg region has emerged as a leading global biotech and medical technology hub with the critical mass necessary to attract sector players as small as a start-up and as large as Pfizer – the pharma giant is consolidating its German headquarters, management, administration, marketing and sales operations in Berlin beginning in early 2008. Why Berlin? To be closer to the action.
   "Berlin is already a major center of the German health-care industry," said Dr. Andreas Penk, Pfizer's Germany country manager when the location was announced in the fall of 2007. "Here the scientists, the private sector, politicians and health-care suppliers work closely together and are merely a stone's throw apart, factors that are increasingly important for our company's success."
   The addition of Pfizer to Berlin's long list of biotech and life science companies is significant because of the company's global reach and the potential for more Pfizer operations to end up there in due course. If and when that happens, it will be a win-win for all involved.    "Pfizer will strengthen the healthcare industry in Berlin and at the same time profit from the tightly knit, lively network of connections between the region's companies, scientific communities and authorities," says René Gurka, managing director at Berlin Partner, the region's economic development agency.
   These synergies are central to Berlin's success as a biotech and broader life science cluster, and increasingly as a center for biotech R&D. The Berlin-Brandenburg area is home to seven universities, 21 universities of applied science and technical colleges; more than 100 research institutes, including those affiliated with the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Institutes and Fraunhofer Institutes; and numerous other research entities. In fact, the Berlin-Brandenburg area has the highest concentration of research institutes in Europe. Such a concentration of research resources attracts not only top-notch students from around the world, but top-notch faculty and research personnel, as well. (Of the approximately 180,000 university-level students in the Berlin area, 25,000 come from outside of Germany.)
   "Berlin-Brandenburg offers us ideal conditions for top-level research," says Christian Piepenbrock, COO of Epigenomics AG, a molecular diagnostics company specializing in cancer screening tests. And not just researchers, but management, too, will appreciate Berlin. "Top-class managers from around the world feel comfortable in this dynamic location," he adds. That might be for two reasons: Berlin is a major cosmopolitan center, not a second- or third-tier city out in the hinterlands. Second, it is considered by many to be the capital of the new Europe, located on the cusp of Western Europe and the rapidly evolving economies to the east.    Just as importantly, Berlin is the capital of Germany, so access to political quarters and officials is not only possible, but it is part of what makes the biotech cluster so effective. To give credit where it is due, "Politicians realized the potential in the field early on and acted quickly and decisively," says Prof. Dr. h. c. Gunter Stock, president of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. "The 'Berlin-Brandenburg Healthcare Region' master plan initiated by the states of Berlin and Brandenburg combines the commitment of the two states to the goal of using the region's unique potential as effectively as possible. A professional form of cluster management was introduced to advance the strategic development of the region as a leading location for life sciences."
   Dr. Arno Krotzky, CEO and managing director of Metanomics GmbH & Co. put it this way in a www.berlinews.de article: "The capital region offers proximity to political decision makers and, as the center of the new Europe, a range of international contacts. Attractive site opportunities, uncomplicated contact with government officials and the pull of Berlin for our new staff were what enabled us to set up so quickly." Krotzky added that when Metanomics Health, a second company, was launched, "We again opted to remain in Berlin because the scientific and engineering environment here is so unique." Metanomics is a research and product development firm specializing in metabolic functional genomics.
   A life science cluster would be only so successful without a hospital, and Berlin happens to have more than 100, including Europe's largest university hospital, Charité University Berlin, located at four campuses around the city. Scores of pioneering German physicians worked at Charité over the years, and the institution is no less important today. Home to 7,500 students and 128 clinics and institutes, Charité is a cornerstone of Berlin's – and Germany's – life science industry. Just ask Prof. Dr. Detlev Ganten, Charité's chairman of the board.
   "We can perform clinical trials faster and better than elsewhere," he asserts. "Last year, we earned €30 million with clinical studies."
   Which is enough revenue to hire some more top-flight researchers and medical expertise. And that is the magic of a mature industry cluster: It only gets better for existing and future participants.