The main business sectors of the Øresund region
Life sciences
In the Øresund region more than 41,000 people work in the life industry, including 5,000 researchers with an academic background and the region covers 60% of Scandinavian life science production. Within this area the Øresund region ranks no. 3 in Europe and has been named Medicon Valley.
Companies like Novo Nordisk, Lundbeck and LEO Pharmaceuticals, Ferring are major international players. Foreign companies like ACADIA Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Phytera, Structural Bioinformatics, Medarex (Genmab), Bayer, Biogen, ISIS Pharmaceuticals (Pantheco) have established activities in the region.
Today, the Øresund region is home to 140 biotech companies as well as a strong support industry and a range of scientific institutions, e.g. 26 hospitals, of which 11 are university hospitals, and 14 universities. This combination of a rich research community and an entrepreneurial industry with good finance possibilities is a good breeding ground.
See the Mediconvally website here.
IT and telecommunication
Denmark and Sweden are two of the world's most developed countries in terms of information and communication technologies. These neighbouring countries are always in the top five in international surveys of the penetration of information and communication technologies. This is due to a very positive attitude towards IT throughout the two societies. The attitude has had a positive effect on the business climate in this sector. The IT-sector in the Øresund Region is the largest IT-cluster in Scandinavia with 100,000 employees.
Many of the largest global players have located part their research and development activities in the Region. Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola are present with large development facilities. Nokia has established the biggest research centre outside Finland in Copenhagen. Ericsson has been present in the Region for many years. Both Nokia and Ericsson are located on both sides of the Øresund. Alcatel, Intel, and Tellabs are also located here.
Visit the specialised Øresund IT Academy website here.
Food sector
The Øresund Region is the location for food companies representing every link of the food chain from ’farm to fridge’, supplying the metropolitan areas of Copenhagen and Malmö as well as large export markets.
The developments on the consumer side coupled with public support have spurred the development in the industry. Companies and research institutions are working closely together to improve and invent new products and processes. Applied biotechnology, packaging, process technology and equipment, additives and ingredients as well as marketing competencies are the areas in which heavy innovation efforts are taking place.
Among the companies present in the region within the food sector are multinational players such as Danisco, Arla Foods, Tetrapack, Nestlé, Procordia and PLM.
See the Øresund Food Excelence website for further information.
