Baden-Württemberg can look back on a long tradition of producing high-quality medical devices and pharmaceutical products. Companies in the biotech sector carry out R&D and have established many successful strategic partnerships and attracted significant amounts of funding in the past few years. They also work with the medical technology and pharmaceutical sectors. Baden-Württemberg is the largest pharma- and medical technology location, the second largest biotechnology location in Germany, and is economically very stable.

The Baden-Württemberg Healthcare Industry report produced by BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg lists 1,037 companies in the state's healthcare industry, all of which are involved in research, development and/or production in Baden-Württemberg. The Baden-Württemberg Statistics Office extracted key figures for 992 of the companies: in 2013, 82,647 employees generated taxable revenues of 22.7 billion euros. Employees are the basis for innovations in the healthcare sector and make a significant contribution to the economic strength of the state.

In addition to the business figures presented in BIOPRO's Healthcare Industry report, the Economic Research Institute WiFOR has for the first time extracted key figures from the industrial division of the German health economy on behalf of a project consortium led by BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg GmbH. The WiFOR report is based on the differentiation of healthcare products and services on the basis of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy's National Health Account (NHA). In its report, WiFOR, working with BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg, identified and defined the industrial division as a separate division for the first time. It will now continue to be regarded as such in Germany. The figures collected by BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg in the Healthcare Industry report are from companies that are specifically focussed on production, research and development. The WiFOR report's industrial division also takes into account companies with a particular focus on trade and distribution.

The gross value added (GVA) of the healthcare industry with a focus on production was 6.3 billion euros in 2014; the entire industrial division accounted for 13.8 billion euros. In Baden-Württemberg alone, each GVA euro generated in the industrial division of the health economy generated a GVA euro in other areas. This knock-on effect therefore helped generate a total GVA of 27.8 billion euros. Similarly impressive is the effect on the labour market: a single workplace in the industrial division creates 1.26 more jobs in the state economy as a whole. The two strongest contributors to the job market in Baden-Württemberg are SMEs with 6.8 billion euros GVA and big businesses with 7 billion GVA. While big businesses have a high level of labour productivity, SMEs tend to create more jobs. Labour productivity in the industrial division is 21.2 percent higher than in Baden-Württemberg as a whole. The industrial division exported goods worth 20.1 billion euros in 2014 (11.1% of the state's total export figures), making it the third largest exporter in Baden-Württemberg.

The healthcare industry is an important economic factor in Baden-Württemberg as shown by the impressive figures presented in the recent report. BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg works on behalf of the Baden-Württemberg government to provide support to the healthcare industry. Interdisciplinarity is the keyword for advancing innovation, as cooperation between disciplines is what creates new starting points. BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg is therefore active at the interface of biotechnology, medical technology and the pharmaceutical industry, bringing research institutions and companies together.

Growing health awareness in the population along with demographic change will also continue to contribute to growth in the industry. BIOPRO has developed an index for the medical technology sector – the healthcare industry sector with the highest revenues in Baden-Württemberg – to calculate productivity growth. In the period 2007 – 2013, employment figures went up 10% and sales increased by 27%. This therefore implies a significant rise in workforce productivity, which is partly also due to companies' innovative strength.

Baden-Württemberg has a number of internationally reputed industry hotspots:

• Tuttlingen and the surrounding area is a world centre of medical technology; the area is mainly home to manufacturers of surgical instruments, endoscopes and implants

• Ulm, Biberach and Laupheim are important biopharmaceutical production sites

• Companies in the Mannheim/Heidelberg area drive the development of cell therapies and personalised medicine, amongst others

• Reutlingen and Tübingen are home to innovative companies that develop immunotherapies and focus on regenerative medicine

• Baden-Württemberg is a leading location for the production of homeopathic and herbal medicines.

The companies in the Baden-Württemberg healthcare industry are embedded in a diverse and intersectoral research environment. Baden-Württemberg has five university hospitals (Freiburg, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Tübingen and Ulm) and participates in six health research centres. It is also home to a number of renowned research institutes (Max Planck Institutes, German Cancer Research Center, Fraunhofer Institutes, etc.). The transfer from research into industry led to 24 business start-ups in the period from 07/2013 to 07/2015. These businesses will contribute to the continuing viability and innovative capacity of the healthcare industry into the future.

BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg's analyses were recently published in a report entitled "Healthcare Industry 2015 – Facts and Figures for Baden-Württemberg". The key points and results of the WifOR study entitled "The Economic Footprint of the Industrial Health Economy in Baden-Württemberg" have also been summarised in a flyer. Both can be found on this website under "Publications" and will be distributed in paper form by BIOPRO at MEDICA. BIOPRO's stand is located in hall 15, booth G23/24.