|
For Immediate Release
Alan Fogg,
Director of Communications
afogg@fceda.org, 703-790-0600 (o) or 571-213-5065 (m)
German biotech firm Axxima Pharmaceuticals wins opportunity to locate in Fairfax County BioAccelerator
Eight German companies entered competition to win one year's free rent and services.
Fairfax County, Virginia, December 23, 2003 - Axxima Pharmaceuticals AG of Munich, which is involved in the discovery and development of drugs to fight infectious diseases, won a German competition to expand into the U.S. market through the Fairfax County BioAccelerator, a bioscience business incubator.
Axxima won a free year of space and business development services – a €50,000 ($55,000) package – in the BioAccelerator, which is near Washington, D.C. Axxima, founded in 1988, has 90 employees. The company hopes to move into BioAccelerator space within four months.
The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA) organized the competition with BioM and BioTOP Berlin Brandenburg, which are biotechnology trade groups for the Munich and Berlin areas, respectively. Eight experts in biotech, venture capital and the law evaluated eight competition entries from the Munich and Berlin areas.
"Winning the Fairfax County competition makes it easier to intensify our business development in the U.S. and establish a presence in the world's most important market for pharmaceuticals with a long term perspective," said Axxima CFO Clive Krückemeyer.
“Fairfax County is uniquely situated for bioscience companies because of its proximity to Washington, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, and because of the 4,800 technology companies that do business here,” said Gerald L. Gordon, president and CEO of the FCEDA.
The FCEDA next month will announce the winners of a two-way incubator competition for companies in the United Kingdom and Fairfax County.
About the competition organizers
The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (www.FairfaxCountyEDA.org) promotes Fairfax County as a business and technology center. The FCEDA has marketing offices in London, Frankfurt and Tokyo.
BioM AG (www.bio-m.de) promotes Munich as an international center of innovative biotechnology through events and venture capital programs. BioTOP Berlin Brandenburg (www.biotop.de) coordinates biotechnology activities and projects to turn the German capital region into a global biotech center.
# # #
| 
