Holland Compared

Life Sciences and Health
Sector
Helping to advance health worldwide
• The Netherlands ranks 4th worldwide in patent applications for
medical technology and 9th in patent applications for
biotechnology..
• With approximately 375 innovative life sciences companies
clustered within a 120 mile radius, Holland is the most
geographically concentrated region in the world when it comes to
creating economic and social value in Life Sciences and Health.
• Expertise in healthcare infrastructure is characterised by a
turn-key plus approach: Dutch companies are able to cover all
aspects from hospital design & engineering, financing, waste
management, medical equipment etc. while paying special
attention paid to energy efficiency and ‘healing environments’.
• In 2011, Brainport Eindhoven’s Brainport region was named the
world’s most intelligent ICT and health cluster.
• The excellent medical research infrastructure is strongly focused
on translational research in the different medical fields such
oncology, cardiovascular, immunology and neuroscience.
• The Netherlands is a global market leader in mobile health care,
which enables the Dutch to contribute to rural health care in
developing countries around the globe.
• The industry annually exports around 37 billion euros in total of
which 25 billion euros is pharmaceutical and the rest medical
technology and medical and laboratory instruments.
• The sector invests over 2 billion euros in R&D in the Netherlands
each year and is becoming a globally recognized stronghold of
open innovation. It already accounts for 2.5% of GDP.
• Philips is the world leader in medical imaging and patient
monitoring; DSM is a biomaterials leader.
• The Dutch public-private partnership model, such as the
Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI) and the three top institutes
(TI Pharma, CTMM and BMM), have set an international standard.
TOP SECTORS IN FOCUS 61