Life Science in Greater Copenhagen

Foto: Experimentarium / Adam Mørk

Greater Copenhagen’s life sciences industry is world leading for R&D spending, clinical testing and drug development. Copenhagen is part of the Danish-Swedish life-science cluster, Medicon Valley, which consists of a dense collection of universities, hospitals and companies.

As part of the Ministry of Higher Education and Science's 14 new business clusters, a new business and technology cluster focused on Life Science and Welfare Technology has also been established. The Life Science cluster covers the entire value chain within medicines, biotech solutions and medicoproducts. Welfare technology covers technical and digital tools and solutions within health, social and elder care.

Europe's fastest growing biotech cluster

Denmark continuously ranks within top 3 in the world on the Scientific American Scorecard for the development of biotechnology. Known for its focus on research and product development, Medicon Valley is home to more than 60% of Scandinavia’s pharmaceutical industry and is currently Europe’s fastest growing biotech cluster.

The Danish Novo Nordisk Foundation has awarded grants of more than €738 million to establish and expand their initiative, Copenhagen Bioscience Cluster, to establish world-class research centres in: 

Part of the bioscience cluster is The Danish National Biobank being one of the world's largest biobanks ensuring scientists a comprehensive overview of and access to millions of biological samples in Denmark’s health care system.

Danish life science research is in top 5 within the OECD when measuring on citations, being cited almost twice as much as the world average*. Other life science areas where Greater Copenhagen has world-leading knowledge are:

  • Dementia and CNS related diseases

  • Reproduction and fertility

  • Clinical Immunology (transfusion medicine)
  • Drug delivery systems

  • Bacteriology

  • Neuroscience

  • Oncology

  • Cardiology

  • Dermatology

  • Hearing aid solutions and related technologies

*Ministry of Higher Education and Science

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