BioPark Annual Report 2023

(No. 275) One year after the official end of the Corona pandemic, the current development of life science companies in the Regensburg BioRegion also shows an end to the strong growth of recent years. The number of companies is stagnating however with increase in the number of employees. The new business figures for 2023 presented by BioPark Regensburg GmbH include 66 companies and 5,671 employees for the cluster in Eastern Bavaria.

The cluster's companies from the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical engineering, diagnostics, analytics and healthcare have been unable to continue the boom of previous years one year after the official end of the Corona pandemic in Eastern Bavaria. This is shown by the current survey in the Regensburg BioRegion, which is carried out annually by BioPark Regensburg GmbH, a company owned by the city of Regensburg. The total number of companies in the cluster has stagnated compared to the previous year at 66 companies (+/- 0) (see graph 1). The total number of employees however increased from 5,340 to 5,671 (+ 6%). The BioPark is currently 90% occupied. The technology and incubator center currently houses 37 leaseholders with 683 employees in its three buildings with a gross area of 18,000 m². These include start-up companies, university and non-university institutions, companies from home and abroad as well as service providers and our own daycare center. BioPark GmbH's sales in 2023 were around 4 million Euro.

There are currently 6 pharmaceutical companies (+/- 0) with 1,619 employees (+7), 33 medtech companies (-1) from medical engineering, diagnostics & analytics with 3,153 employees (+286) and 27 biotech companies (+ 1) active with 899 employees (+38) compared to the previous year (see graph 2).

For BioPark Managing Director Dr. Thomas Diefenthal this paints a clear picture. There has been a consolidation of the life science scene worldwide after the boom of the Corona years. Global vaccination campaigns and innovations and products in the field of hygiene have brought unprecedented growth to the industry. In 2023, the sales markets and innovation directions have now returned to normal. Corona winners have had to look for new clients and products, which has not always been successful and resulted in job cuts or even bankruptcy. Classic industries such as medical engineering in the region, on the other hand, have continued to record increases in the number of employees.

In the BioPark, this consolidation led to one bankruptcy and site closure. However, some of the freed up space has already been reoccupied by growing companies and start-ups. As a result, the number of leaseholders and employees in the building actually increased compared to the previous year. “Since years the currently fully equipped, empty areas have made the theme of settlement interesting for us again,” explained Dr. Diefenthal. He still sees the future of the industry at the location as positive. “We are experiencing an unbroken boom in biotechnology in the medical sector. Countless new therapies and diagnostic methods have been approved. 5,000 new drugs from biotechnology are being tested worldwide, 600 of which are in clinical phases in Germany alone.” The second pillar of the BioPark, the health network “Healthcare Regensburg”, is also developing brilliantly. There are now 131 players active here, compared to almost 80 when it was founded in 2017. The new accelerator program “BioPark Jump” is intended to specifically promote start-ups in this area with the support of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, for example, to make the themes of digitalization and aging society at the location designed to be future-proof.