With more than 240 companies active in the area of bio­technology and nearly 170 additional companies from the pharmaceutical sector as well as clinical research and de­velopment, Bavaria takes a leading position in medical and biopharmaceutical biotechnology in Germany.

The Biotechnology Cluster bundles the strengths of the sites in Munich/Martinsried (including Planegg-Mar­tinsried and Freising-Weihenstephan), Regensburg, and Northern Bavaria (Würzburg, Erlangen/Nuremberg, Bay­reuth), and actively integrates institutes from other Bavar­ian regions in the Bavaria-wide network.

The focus of the cluster's work is the identification, through active technology and product scouting by local partners at academic institutions, of research projects that can be commercialized. For promising ideas, the cluster organization offers the m4 Award as a special, Bavaria-wide funding program for project validation with the goal of founding an enterprise. Eight enterprises have already been founded by winning teams in the course of five ten­der offers to date.

A knowledge-based, highly innovative industry has developed over the past 20 years. Its international impor­tance is expressed through a global network of coopera­tion partners.

In the extremely protracted, high-risk, and expensive prod­uct development cycles for new medications, Bavaria has been able to establish itself as a location for the early iden­tification and validation of suitable drug candidates.

In addition to a number of successful SMEs with specific products or technology offerings, one of Europe's largest research and production facilities for biopharmaceuticals – Roche in Penzberg with currently more than 6,000 em­ployees – is located south of Munich. The complete value chain, from research to pre-clinical and clinical develop­ment to production, is a particular characteristic of this in­dustry that is firmly rooted in Bavaria.

Another key focal point of the network is the international image and presentation of the latest technologies and products of Bavarian companies along with the excellent scientific basis of research institutions in Bavaria.