Companies
Established members of North Rhine-Westphalia’s corporate landscape are multinational biotech companies such as Qiagen and Miltenyi Biotec, as well as the pharmaceutical and chemical companies Bayer Health Care, UCB, Henkel and Evonic Industries. In addition to these global players, NRW is home to an ascendent set small and medium-size businesses such as Evocatal, Celonic, Cevec Pharmaceuticals, Dasgip, Paion, PlasmidFactory, Protagen and many others.
Beyond the major corporations and small and medium-sized businesses, there are numerous fresh startup firms such as Agroprotect, Autodisplay Biotech, CellAct Pharma, Epivios, Nanohale, Nexigen or Protectimmun. This small selection alone illustrates the thriving innovation that is at home in the biotech universe of North Rhine-Westphalia. For a comprehensive overview of the North Rhine-Westphalia biotech hub, the companies in the state of NRW and their profiles, please refer to our company database.
Key figures of NRW biotech companies for 2011:
- Around 3,400 employees – first place among German states
- 42% of total German biotech sales (€1.0 billion) originate in North Rhine-Westphalia
- 23% of total sales are reinvested in R&D (€226 million)
- Average age of companies in NRW: 9.7 years
- 89% of the companies employ less than 50 workers
- Business sectors: 38% of companies are active in several branches including enabling technologies (primarily in the field diagnostics and analysis); 17% concentrate on industrial biotechnology, and 37% are active in the fields of health and medicine.
- In 2010, NRW biotech companies attracted by far the most venture capital in Germany: €80 million
Sources: www.biotechnologie.de: The German biotechnology branch in 2011; annual NRW company survey by BIOCOM AG, BIO.NRW.
