When One Door Closes…

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

In October I went on a press tour of the life sciences industry in the Netherlands, which will soon be home to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Sponsored by the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA), the tour was a well-organized, four-day whirlwind. For example, we toured university medical centers in five cities, and we heard presentations from academic thought leaders (e.g., Robert Sauerwein, M.D., Ph.D., of Radboud University Medical Center), biopharmaceutical executives (e.g., Jan G.J. van de Winkel, Ph.D., president and CEO of Genmab), entrepreneurs (e.g., Peiter Reitsma, Ph.D., chief scientific officer and founder of VarmX), 3D imaging innovators (e.g., Anne Rios, Ph.D., of the Princess Maxima Center for Pediatric Oncology), and surgeons (e.g., Casper van Eijck, M.D., Ph.D., of Erasmus Medical Center). We also toured several of the country’s life sciences parks, which is when I found myself pondering the saying, “When one door closes, another opens.” Let me explain.