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Munich, 11 May 2006

Almost 400 visitors gathered at the spectacular Autoworld Museum in Bussels on 3 May to see EPO President Alain Pompidou and European Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen honour the European Inventors of the Year 2006 at the first-ever awards ceremony organised jointly by the two institutions.

Speaking at the award ceremony, EPO President Alain Pompidou said that inventors "should be treated like pop stars". He described the event as "historic". Commission Vice President Günter Verheugen said he hoped that the awards would establish themselves as a "tradition" in the Belgian capital and would one day be "as prestigious as the Nobel Prize".

Among the guests were representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament , the State Intellectual Property Office of China, the Russian Agency for Patents and Trademarks (Rospatent), the Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI), the African Regional Industrial Property Organization (ARIPO) and European industries, as well as Nicole Fontaine, the former president of the European Parliament. The European media was also well represented with 30 print journalists and camera crews in attendance at the gala following an announcement of the event at a joint press conference in the Commission press room earlier in the day.

Awards were presented in six categories and the European Inventors of the Year 2006 are:

• Zbigniew Janowicz and Cornelis Hollenberg (Rhein Biotech, Düsseldorf, Germany), who developed a process for producing foreign proteins in Hansenula yeasts, a key component in the production of hepatitis B vaccines. The new technology is now an acknowledged standard, helping to combat the worldwide spread of hepatitis B, which according to WHO estimates affects around a third of the world's population. Over 450 million doses of the vaccine have now been sold in 90 countries. They were honoured in the category "Industry".

• Stephen P.A. Fodor, Michael C. Pirrung, J. Leighton Read and Lubert Stryer (Affymax, Netherlands), who revolutionised biotechnology with their invention of the DNA chip while working for the Dutch company Affymax's US research institute. They succeeded in storing vast amounts of biological data on a small glass chip (polymer synthesis). Today, as a result, a great many experiments can be conducted at the same time on a single DNA chip. The invention is primarily used to detect genetically determined disease. The jury selected this team for the category "Small and Medium-sized enterprises".

• Peter Grünberg (Jülich Research Centre, Germany), who identified the giant magnetoresistance effect (GMR), which allowed a fifty-fold increase in the usable storage density of hard disks. The fruits of his research in information technology are now to be found in nearly all commercially available PCs, digital cameras and MP3 players. He was declared the winner in the category "Universities and research institutions".

• John Edward Starrett, Joanne Bronson, John Martin, Muzammil Mansuri and David Tortolani, who succeeded in producing innovative prodrugs of phosphonates, which do not unleash their full effect until transformed in the human body. They are due to be deployed against viral infections and in tumour therapy. The team took home the award for "New EU member states", since the technology is based on research from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague..

• Larry Gold and Craig Tuerk (NeXstar Pharmaceuticals, Boulder, USA) who, with their SELEX technology, invented an important screening process used in biochemistry to find unique oligonucleotides capable of binding to specific proteins that cause disease. This pioneering invention led to an aptamer or drug called Macugen which has eye treatment applications and is due to be approved in Europe soon. It is hoped that SELEX technology will also result in drugs for cancer therapy and prove useful in the fight against AIDS. The American inventors were awarded the trophy in the category "Non-European countries".

• Federico Faggin (Italy; Santa Clara, USA) developed the first microprocessor chip, allowing huge volumes of data to be processed and unleashing a revolution in computer technology. He has filed patent applications over the course of his distinguished career. Federico Faggin was presented with the European Inventor of the Year award for "Lifetime achievement".

The awards gala was held as part of a two-day conference, which provided a unique forum for exploring the role of patents in promoting innovation in Europe. Around 140 high-level experts from Europe, the United States and Asia attended the conference to discuss the future of the European patent system and the challenges that China's emergence presents.

For further information please contact:
European Commission
Gregor Kreuzhuber
Tel.: +322/2966565
European Patent Office
Press Office
Rainer Osterwalder
press@european-inventor.org
Tel.: +49 89 2399-1821

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