Statistics
German Biotechnology in 2005
Just two decades ago, biotechnology in was taking its first developmental steps in the marketplace. Today, it is firmly established as a commercial branch. This is the picture emerging from the recent national biotechnology survey, taking in biotech companies of all sizes from across , and carried out by biotechnologie.de on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). For the first time in this sector, the data complies with statistical standards as set by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), allowing for a reliable and internationally comparable description of the German biotech landscape.
Number of companies and their distribution across Germany
In total, 480 enterprises in Germany are substantially or exclusively active in biotechnology, in accordance with the OECD definition* (dedicated biotech enterprise). For a further 59 companies, modern biotechnology is a field of activity or business existing alongside others. Included in this second group are, above all, pharma and chemistry enterprises and/or seeds manufacturers. 14 of the 480 dedicated biotech companies, or 2,7 percent, were listed on the stock market in 2005. In the same year, the creation of new companies and the number of insolvencies, 15 and 19 respectively, more or less balance themselves out.
Table 1: German biotech sector in 2005
| Number of dedicated biotechnology companies | 480 |
| Number of innovative biotechnology companies. | 59 |
Biotechnology in is a geographically spread-out industry with some larger clusters (see table 2). The largest number of biotech enterprises is in (94), followed by Baden-Wuerttemberg (77) and North Rhine-Westphalia (55). If you consider and to be a single cluster, then this, with 84 companies, would be in second place. The smallest number of dedicated biotech enterprises is to be found in (3) and (7).
Fig. 1: Distribution of biotech companies in Germany
Source: biotechnologie.de
Source: Biotechnology Company Survey 2006 by biotechnologie.de
Table 2: Distribution of biotech companies by federal state (alphabetic)
| Federal State | Number of dedicated biotech companies | Number of innovative biotechnology companies |
| Baden-Württemberg | 78 | 3 |
| Bavaria | 93 | 8 |
| Berlin | 55 | 1 |
| Brandenburg | 30 | 2 |
| Bremen | 7 | 0 |
| Hamburg | 17 | 2 |
| Hesse | 25 | 10 |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 14 | 2 |
| Lower Saxony | 37 | 9 |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 55 | 11 |
| Rhineland-Palatiate | 10 | 2 |
| Saarland | 3 | 0 |
| Saxony | 18 | 1 |
| Saxony-Anhalt | 19 | 1 |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 12 | 6 |
| Thuringia | 7 | 1 |
| Total | 480 | 59 |
*All data was collected in accordance with the Framework for biotechnological Statistics, set by the OECD (see "methods of the biotechnology company survey")