According to the study by the Department of Labor and Economic Development of the City of Munich and the biotech cluster management organization BioM, 373 biotech and pharmaceutical companies employed 33,400 people in the EMM last year. Of those companies, 146 are located in the capital city and a further 193 are in the area of Munich that is commonly referred to as planning region 14.
The study subdivides the companies into various fields: It includes a total of 165 biotech companies. 56 companies had been newly founded since 2015, 16 of which were founded in 2020. This sector employed 18,500 individuals last year. The life sciences field has 136 companies with a workforce of 6,700. In addition, there are 31 pharmaceutical companies in the EMM, which employ 5,900 people. There are also 51 contract research organizations (CROs) established in the EMM with 2,300 employees.
At the moment, these companies are performing research work on a total of 126 drug candidates for drug and diagnostic test development in the clinical phase. In 2013, the year in which the last study was published, there were only 49 candidates. Furthermore, 35 projects are currently in clinical phase III. At the same time, the number of medicinal products that were authorized through small and medium-sized companies has doubled from six to twelve since 2013.
The biotech and pharmaceuticals industry is a part of the high-tech business location Munich
Clemens Baumgärtner, Head of the Department of Labor and Economic Development, explained:
“The importance of Munich as a center of commerce and industry arises from the sum of its future-oriented industries. They offer highly qualified jobs and benefit from a diverse local scientific network. In the corona crisis as well, the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industry in Munich showed its innovative and competitive abilities and may be considered an essential pillar of Munich as a high-tech business location.
Horst Domdey, Managing Director of BioM, added:
“The biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industry in the Munich metropolitan area has done an excellent job at taking on the challenges posed by the pandemic and at seizing the opportunities offered by digitization, and has successfully expanded its professional expertise in the field of personalized medicine.”
The companies feel right at home in the city: 81 percent rate the region as an excellent or good location for biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. In this context, the focus is on the proximity to science and research. The region is distinguished by eight research institutions that form the scientific foundation, including two elite universities, three world-renowned Max Planck Institutes and the Helmholtz Zentrum für Gesundheit und Umwelt. This is complemented by effective network management, particularly by the cluster organization BioM.