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The cluster members have 5 main targets:

• To bring together and mobilize industry players and those involved in public research and educational institutions in order to provide a structure for, promote and encourage innovation

• To assist emerging partnership projects within companies and research centers

• To develop innovative technology to accelerate the pharmaceutical production, diagnostics kits and medical instrumentation

• To become the leading national and international model for handling emerging infectious and orphan (rare) diseases

• To stimulate the economic development of the Mediterranean region by accessing and penetrating new job-creating markets

Advantages

The PACA and Languedoc-Roussillon regions occupy a privileged position in the French Life Sciences sector

Specific national rankings:
•    Highest density of practitioners
•    #3 in France for the number of Life Sciences companies
•    #2 in France for teaching and training in Life Sciences
•    #2 in France for scientific publications
•  #3 in France for life-science patents registered by cross-disciplinary technology platforms (animal, sample collection, etc.)

Life science sector in PACA and Languedoc-Roussillon

Companies and Jobs    
- 160 companies
- 10,000 direct jobs 
   
Research    
- 6,000 public sector researchers or 30% of the regional potential    
Education
- 39,000 students, of which 1,500 are PhD students
- Montpellier, #1 faculty of medicine in the Western world, founded in 1220

Members

Over 140 members in 2008


Companies: over 90 of which almost 90% of the businesses in the cluster are small or medium-sized enterprises (SME)
   
• French companies: CISBIO International, Galderma, Horiba ABX, Sanofi-Aventis,  Virbac, etc.
• International companies: Bausch&Lomb (United States), Idenix (United States), Beckman Coulter (United States), Bio-Rad (United States), etc.
Research and Educational Institutions Over 20 centers, including the universities of Montpellier, Aix-Marseille and Nice-Sophia Antipolis, the Ecole des Mines d’Alès-Nîmes, Ecole Polytechnique de Montpellier, Ecole Généraliste Ingénieurs de Marseille (EGIM), L’Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille (IBDM), L’Institut de Recherche de Biothérapie de Montpellier (IRB), L’Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) L’Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique de Sophia Antipolis (INRIA), Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA) etc.
   
Nearly 15 other organizations are also cluster members, including the regional councils of Provence-Alpes-Côte-D’azur (PACA) and Languedoc-Roussillon, the General Councils (county councils) of Maritime-Alps, Bouches-du-Rhône, Gard, l’Hérault and Var, the Communautés d’Agglomération (agglomeration communities) of Marseilles, Montpellier, Nice, Nîmes and Toulon, the Directions Régionales de l’Industrie, de la Recherche et de l’Environnement (DRIRE) for Languedoc-Roussillon and PACA, etc.  

Current R&D project partnerships (refer to appendix)

16 projects were certified between 2006 and the beginning of 2008 with a total investment of 44 million euros, which includes 20 million euros of financing

Public funding examples:
• Almost 12.5 million euros granted by the Single Interministerial Fund (Fonds Unique Interministériel or FUI) between 2005 and 2007
• Nearly 3 million euros were allocated to the cluster by the National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche or ANR) between 2005 and 2007

International partnerships

The cluster is involved in collective projects on an international scale, organized by the DGE, together with other health clusters in France, including:
-    Bio-Bangalore
-    BioMed Israel
-    Bio USA
-    Bio Japan  

Appendix: Selected certified FUI R&D projects

• More information on pôle Orpheme