German Medical Biotechnology Industry Immune to Global Economic Downturn

"The medical biotech industry, which consists of many small companies, not only caters to the German market but benefits from business abroad. Biopharmaceuticals, which make up more than 80% of the biotech industry, saw an 8 percent increase in sales in 2010 and a substantial part of those revenues came from exports", explains Gabriel Flemming, medical biotechnology expert at Germany Trade & Invest in Berlin.

The German medical biotech market is made up of small but highly innovative companies, 80% of which comprise of less than fifty employees. All together, these firms spent over EUR 1 billion on R&D. Furthermore, German companies filed one thousand biotech patents at the European Patent Office in 2010, helping to cement Germany?s number one position as patent leader in Europe.

The medical biotechnology segment, whose strength has come from close collaboration between industry, government and the research sector, has made German a breeding ground for innovation. From 2011 to 2014, the German government will invest a total of EUR 5.5 billion in life sciences. The report also shows that in the last three years there has been a spike in product partnerships between German biotech companies and major international players.

"We do not expect a slowdown in this sector in the foreseeable future simply because Germany has firmly established itself as an instrumental medical biotech hub by providing the right incentives for R&D and by remaining competitive", adds Flemming.

Germany Trade & Invest's annual "The Medical Biotechnology Industry in Germany" 2011/2012 is now available at this link.