Statistik
German biotechnology: Moderate growth in 2007
In 2007, German biotechnology underwent distinctly moderate growth: For the first time, turnover climbed to over two billion euros (+14%), and expenditure on research and development (+8%) reached one billion euros – also a first. These are the core results of the latest biotechnology company survey, carried out this spring by the information platform biotechnologie.de on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The data are based on the guidelines laid out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and provide a comprehensive overview of the economic situation of the German biotech landscape. "Biotechnology companies continue to grow slowly, but steadily. This is a good sign,” comments Boris Mannhardt, biotechnologie.de Project Head.
As before, small and medium-sized firms dominate the German biotech landscape. Approximately 86% of companies have fewer than 50 employees. However, there is a small core of companies that show constant growth, as well as an increasing degree of maturity. This has helped the number of companies with more than 100 employees to rise by nearly a third since the time of the last survey.
Turnover and research spending go up
Content-wise, "red" biotechnology still represents the most important sector in German biotechnology: 216 companies (43%) develop new medicines or diagnostic tests. 81 of these have a total of 127 drugs in clinical studies at this time.
Turnover and R&D expenditure of dedicated biotechnology companies.Quelle: biotechnologie.de
In comparison to the previous year, the number of advanced drug candidates has more than doubled to 23. This is again reflected in continually increased spending on research and development, which reached one billion euros for the first time in 2007. "The figures show that the company foundations continue to expand, and are meanwhile on a steady footing," said Mannhardt, "With five products in the approval stages, and 23 in the last phase of clinical testing, more hopes are being carried by a greater number of companies.
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Service providers and suppliers the industry backbone
"The latest data also show that service providers and suppliers – largely unnoticed by the public – have become a stable backbone for the industry," says Mannhardt. This has pushed company turnover to over two billion euros for the first time, with over half of this sum coming from the 196 biotechnology companies (68%) acting exclusively or predominantly as service providers or subcontractors.
Funding sources for dedicated biotechnology companies.Quelle: biotechnologie.de
Also included in the survey for the first time this year was the biotechnological production capacity for biopharma-ceuticals and other industrial products. Thus, fermenter capacity in Germany was calculated to be around 830,000 litres, with just three companies accounting for almost 90% of this figure. There was also a slight increase in the number of employees, although the total number of biotechnology companies remains almost unchanged at around 500. Around 14,400 people were employed in these companies, and a further 15,200 are employed in the biotechnology-oriented fields of pharmacy, chemical production and seeds manufacturing. This brings employee figures for commercial biotechnology in Germany to 29,700, a rise on the previous year of 2.1%.
