Austria magnet for biotechnology
The life sciences location of Austria has gained considerable momentum since the founding of the very first Austrian biotech company Intercell at the turn of the millennium. Today the whos who of the biotech sector relies on Austria, in particular on its capital city of Vienna.
It comes as no surprise that the international biotech scene in Austria is booming. The enormous impetus of Austrian research, the high level of networking between the research and business communities as well as internationally acclaimed research centres create an ideal biotope for innovation and growth. More specifically, Austria offers a research tax credit that is unrivalled across the globe.
Every second biotech company in Austria is located in the hotspot of Vienna, where a leading research centre evolved, namely the Campus Vienna BioCenter. The concentration of excellent research around the BioCenter and business incubators near the Medical University of Vienna and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences together with the appeal of the city to top talents, have ensured large-scale investments on the part of multinational pharmaceutical companies that have benefited from the outstanding conditions for many years.
Top-notch research
The German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim has already located the entire range of research in Austria, encompassing basic, clinical and applied research, as well as production and distribution operations. Since the year 2000, Vienna has also served as the global company hub for cancer research. Most recently Boehringer Ingelheim invested more than €700m in its Viennese facility, successfully completing the biggest single investment in the companys history when it opened a new biopharmaceutical production plant in October 2021. Philipp von Lattorff, CEO Boehringer Ingelheim Regional Centre Vienna (RCV), named the high quality of employees, a research-friendly environment and the political will to provide support as reflected in the investment premium and research tax credit as the key reasons why the company decided to expand its activities in Vienna.
The Basel Pharma Cluster in Switzerland and medical research in Austria have also been closely linked to each other for a long time. For example, the Novartis subsidiary Sandoz has been manufacturing penicillin in the Tyrolean town of Kundl since 1946. At the end of 2020, Novartis AG launched its European centre of excellence and production in Kundl for vectors used in gene therapy.
Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, Takeda, Pfizer and Merck MSD are only just a few of the top 20 drug developers that have set up business operations in Austria. The Japanese pharmaceutical firm Takeda is also expanding its presence in Austria, producing the latest gene therapy generation against leukaemia at its Viennese plant.
International companies finance more than 50% of total Austrian expenditures for research and development, thus creating close to 45% of all R&D jobs in Austria. Austrian Business Agency (ABA) is the first point of contact and a one-stop-shop for international firms in Austria. The business location agency provides customised support at no charge on all issues relating to the business location itself, settling in Austria and the search for qualified employees.
Contact us:
Marlis Müllner
Austrian Business Agency
+43 1 588 58 239
m.muellner@aba.gv.at
www.investinaustria.at
This article was originally published in European Biotechnology Magazine Spring Edition 2022.
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SLAS - Alexandra Csuport Photography