MediGene: At home in Germany

MediGene GmbH is one of a growing handful of biotech companies being fed by the German government's realization that it is falling behind in biotechnology. The State of Bavaria in particular is fostering biotech, setting up core locations as incubators for young companies. While MediGene is already too big for the incubator program, it has benefitted from state and federal funding.

German biotechnology has been hampered primarily by a lack of investment capital, according to MediGene's director of molecular cardiology, Thomas Henkel, who was formerly at Tularik Inc. There are only two funds in Germany for venture investment: TVM and Atlas, he said. ...