The years of support provided by the state government to the life sciences are paying off handsomely. Thanks to this support, Bavaria’s more than 350 company-strong life sciences community is by far the most important among those of Germany’s states and one of the three largest in Europe. This size comes with a commensurate level of output. Bavaria’s biotechs are also Germany’s leaders in the creation of products which have made it to the clinical testing phase and beyond. Therapeutics and diagnostics predominate among these products.
The wellspring of the development of Bavaria’s biotech community into a world leader was the founding and maintenance of a large number of institutes. The fruits of their research have made them famous throughout Germany and the world. Many of the state’s biotechs started out as institute spin-offs.

The head start enjoyed by Bavarian companies in the development of new therapeutics and diagnostics is a product of the breakthroughs achieved in a large number of R & D projects, and is also attributable to the efforts of providers of ancillary services.

Seven publicly-listed biotechs are headquartered in Bavaria. They join the major operations set up in Bavaria by such international life sciences giants as Amgen, Astellas, Biogen-Idec, Baxter, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Roche Diagnostics, Daiichi-Sankyo and Sandoz and a large number of CROs (contract research organizations) and other service providers in forming a community constituting a tremendous source of customers, products and technology development partners.

Bavaria’s biotech cluster includes a large number of high-performance research institutes of national and international repute. Many of these institutes form part of the state’s large-sized universities. Others operate independently, or are associated with networks of fundamental and applied research.

• university facilities
• non-associated facilities

To assist entrepreneurs in the starting up and expanding of biotechs, the state of Bavaria has set up three agencies under the Cluster Biotechnology Bavaria: BioM (responsible for greater Munich), BioMed Würzburg and BioPark Regensburg GmbH. In addition to providing customized services, the agencies put companies and their founders in touch with dedicated networks.

Maintained by Bayern Innovativ, “Forum Life Science” is a platform offering a comprehensive range of information on and a large number of contacts in the areas food, pharma and industrial biotechnology. 

• BioTech region Munich/Martinsried: The Munich metropolitan area is home to a uniquely powerful group of research facilities: Max Planck institutes, the Helmholtz Center in the city, and those maintained by Munich’s top-ranked universities—LMU and TU. These institutes include the world-renowned Gene Center and the CeNS. The Center for Nanosciences is one of the world’s leaders in the development and application of nanobiotechnologies. The universities also maintain research hospitals.
• Located in the Munich’s southernmost district of Großhadern and the adjoining community of Martinsried, the world-famous Life Sciences Campus forms the core of Munich’s BioTech region. The campus is home to nearly half of the region’s biotechs, to the IZB center of innovation and incubation, to Max Planck institutes, to the Helmholtz Society’s center, to the Gene Center, to the majority of LMU’s departments of sciences, and to the Großhadern research hospital.
• One of Europe’s major centers of green (plant-derived) biotechnologies is Weihenstephan. Located in Freising, a town to the north of Munich, this campus is home to a large number of research institutes, many affiliated with universities, and to an incubation center. It all adds up to a great place to develop advanced products and services.
• BioRegion Regensburg has all of the components of a successful region---its BioPark incubation and development center, the government of the Eastern Bavaria region, and the local university and university of applied sciences. The latter’s specialties: fluorescent bioanalytics, molecular diagnostics, biofunctional surfaces, sensors and applied biomedicine.
• BioRegion Franconia: The region is home to three nodes of biotechnological development. Thanks to its international renowned university and its investigations of the fundamentals of biotechnologies and their use as medicines and applications in clinical situations, Würzburg is a national and international-level hub of research. The city’s IGZ is a center of biotechnological and medical innovation and incubation. The Erlangen-Nuremberg metropolitan area is a world leader in the development of medical technologies and in the researching of viruses and pharmaceuticals. Bayreuth’s focuses are applied biochemistry and advanced materials.
• BioRegion Straubing. Its Center of Expertise in Regenerative Raw Materials is the main venue of Bavaria’s R & D in this area. Many of the materials and technologies developed at the center are turned into products and processes by the companies profiting from the operating advantages accruing from being located in the BioCampus Straubing-Sand, which is comprised of an industrial park, a riverside port and the BioCubator (the new incubation center for renewable materials companies).

Via Bavaria’s Foundation for Research and the state’s technology support programs, the state of Bavaria provides a considerable amount of support to R & D projects. Those involving investments in manufacturing facilities and other operations and made in predesignated areas of Bavaria are eligible for grants or low-interest loans.

Bavaria’s Foundation for Research

“Key technologies in Bavaria”  is a database containing entries on Bavaria’s biotech companies.