Health-Holland

Markwin Velders Vice President Operations & Managing Director at Kite Pharma “There are several aspects that make the Netherlands a good base for Kite Pharma. Having hospitals in close proximity is important for Kite since we require patient samples for our R&D. Standards of living are important, the fact that there are international schools and that a lot of people speak English, are all factors that positively contribute to the Netherlands as a location. The Netherlands is a gateway to Europe; an important selection criterion for Kite. We are currently building a manufacturing facility to supply our innovative therapies to Europe that will employ around 500 people in the next couple of years. Since we are producing personalised medicines, batches that are patient-specific, logistics is crucial to our product. That is why we are located close to Schiphol, where we can take maximum advantage of the logistics infrastructure. The quality of research in the Netherlands is good, and there are many examples of good biotech companies that from academic research and have developed into respected stock exchange listed companies, such as Crucell, Kite and Genmab.” 31