Current BioPark Annual Report 2021
The companies in the cluster from the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and medical engineering, diagnostics, analytics and the healthcare industry were able to significantly expand their business in Eastern Bavaria in the second year of Corona and have increased their staff in many cases. This is shown by the current survey in the BioRegioRegensburg, which is conducted annually by BioPark Regensburg GmbH, a company of the City of Regensburg. The total number of companies in the cluster rose slightly compared to the previous year to 63 companies (+2) (see graph 1). The total number of employees increased significantly from 4,093 to 4,504 (+10%). The BioPark is currently fully booked. The technology and start-up center currently accommodates 35 leaseholders with almost 700 employees in its three buildings on a gross area of 18,000 m2. These include start-up companies, university and non-university institutions, companies from Germany and abroad, as well as service providers and our own daycare center.
Currently, 6 pharmaceutical companies with 1,530 employees, 30 medtech companies (medical engineering, diagnostics/analytics) with 2,124 employees and 27 biotech companies with 850 employees are active in the Regensburg Bioregion cluster (see graph 2).
According to BioPark Managing Director Dr. Thomas Diefenthal, some manufacturing companies from the fields of medical engineering and diagnostics are direct benefactors of the high demand for disinfection, hygiene and test kit items due to the consequences of the Corona pandemic. In other manufacturing companies, on the other hand, the bottlenecks in the supply chains have slowed down expansion and led to stagnation and, in a few cases, to downsizing. Overall, however, the companies coped with the second year of Corona much better than in 2020 with the tough lockdown. This was also reflected in successful company takeovers and rounds of financing, most of which were absent in the previous year. As in the previous year, the Corona pandemic has also led to remarkable innovative projects and products in 2021. These include research on the development of active substances against Covid-19, molecules that break antibiotic resistance or innovative therapy approaches with nanotransporters.
"I'm always impressed by the potential that is successfully implemented in the BioPark and the BioRegioRegensburg," commented Prof. Georg Stephan Barfuss, consultant for business, science and finance for the City of Regensburg, on the new annual report. He sees the cluster policy initiated by the City of Regensburg, from which the BioPark emerged more than 20 years ago, as a recipe for success for the positive development at the location. In total, the business development department of the city of Regensburg has initiated ten network and cluster initiatives since 1996. Some of these work together directly in the city's two innovation and start-up centers, BioPark and TechBase, across all sectors. For example, the BioPark project "Healthcare Regensburg" is part of a cross-cluster initiative in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). In the new network AIR-Regensburg (Artificial Intelligence Regensburg), AI-based systems in diagnostics and medical applications are discussed. The BioPark benefits from its location directly on the university campus with short distances to top-class research facilities at the universities and clinics.
