[Press release]

Recognition at the German SME Summit - Ranga Yogeshwar honors MLL Munich Leukemia Laboratory for innovative achievements.

Munich/Weimar/Überlingen, June 28, 2024 - Ranga Yogeshwar congratulated MLL Münchner Leukämielabor GmbH (MLL Munich leukemia laboratory) on being awarded the TOP 100 seal. The award ceremony at the Summit took place on Friday, June 28, in Weimar for all SMEs that received the TOP 100 seal at the beginning of the year. The science journalist accompanies the innovation competition, which is being held for the 31st time, as a mentor. In the scientific selection process, MLL was particularly convincing in size category C (over 200 employees) in the "Innovation Success" category. This is the sixth time that the company has been among the top innovators.

"Innovation is a top priority at the MLL. Digitalization, automation and the AI-assisted evaluation of patient data from diagnostics and therapy hold a great deal of potential for the future of medical care and the healthcare system. Our database is huge because we record everything digitally. That's why we can access both potentially scalable and very specific data at any time – and share it with experts around the world," explains MLL Managing Director Torsten Haferlach.

The speed and accuracy with which a cancer is diagnosed not only determines the type and course of treatment, but ultimately also the decision on the well-being and often the survival of the patient. From the very beginning - since 2005 – the MLL has therefore relied on digitalization and automation. Between 2019 and 2023, additional AI was gradually tested and established, new algorithms were introduced and workflows were bundled. In this way, the MLL has further reduced diagnostic times with maximum precision and at the same time reduced costs.

"More than 340 specialists now work in our laboratory, and the premises on the site have had to be expanded several times. Since 2005, more than 2.6 million results have been generated. This was not foreseeable," explains Haferlach. "In our business plan, we once assumed 10,000 submissions per year, and that was a best-case scenario. Today, it's over 135,000 per year. The company's continued success is also due to rapid technical and scientific developments, to which our team has always responded innovatively."

On June 28, 2024 in Weimar, the MLL managing directors Prof. Dr. med. Torsten Haferlach, Prof. Dr. med. Claudia Haferlach and Prof. Dr. med. Wolfgang Kern accepted the sixth TOP 100 award from science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar at the German SME Summit. Since 1993, compamedia has been awarding the TOP 100 seal for outstanding innovative strength and above-average innovation success to medium-sized companies. Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke has been in charge of the scientific management since 2002.

Franke is the founder and director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Project partners are the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft for the Promotion of Applied Research and the BVMW. The magazines manager magazin and impulse accompany the company comparison as media partners, ZEIT für Unternehmer is a cooperation partner.

Further information at www.top100.de

MLL Münchner Leukämielabor GmbH is a leading national and international laboratory for the diagnosis and research of leukemia and lymphoma - and one of the largest leukemia laboratories in the world. The company’sexpertise, quality assurance and turnaround time anchored in the company guarantee optimal examination procedures for the suspected diagnosis of leukemia or lymphoma. The modern equipment, the highly innovative working environment and the state-of-the-art analytical methods enable optimal diagnostics for patients.

The MLL is considered a world leader in terms of the breadth of its diagnostic portfolio. The combination of the interlinked methods of cytomorphology, chromosome analysis, FISH, immunophenotyping and a variety of molecular genetic testing procedures makes it possible to obtain a comprehensive picture of the disease in question and, in the next step, to ensure that patients receive the best possible medical treatment.  

With more than 340 employees, the laboratory currently processes approximately 135,000 samples per year. Since its foundation in 2005, the laboratory has received more than 1.15 million samples from patients, generated more than 2.5 million reports, and authored or co-authored more than 790 peer-reviewed publications. The affiliated Medical Care Center MLL MVZ treats over 5,000 patients per year for diagnostics, therapy and second opinion consultations.

In the "TOP 100 Innovation" competition for SMEs, MLL took first place in the "over 200 employees" category in 2023 and was awarded for the sixth time in 2024. MLL also received the F.A.Z. Institute's "Germany's Innovation Leader 2024" award and was a finalist for the "EY Entrepreneur Of The Year" award in 2023. It was also ranked among the top 100 most innovative SMEs in Germany according to Munich Strategy and WirtschaftsWoche.