Life Sciences/Healthcare

Life Sciences

Biotechnology and Life Sciences play a leading role in the state economy; with around 260 Life Science companies and over 20,000 employees Niedersachsen is among the prime Life Science locations in Germany, with experts working together across the disciplines within numerous thematic networks. The State Government initiative Life Sciences Niedersachsen – BioRegioN is the central coordination agency for the Niedersachsen Life Sciences Network.

Together, universities with a long tradition of learning and research such as the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, founded 1737, universities of applied sciences and close-to-business research institutes create a first-class research platform with an emphasis on close cooperation between science and business and interdisciplinary working methods. The dense network of competence centres facilitating knowledge transfer among universities, universities of applied science and business makes it possible to incorporate scientific discoveries and inventions quickly into the practical development of new products, processes and services. With this exceptional research climate, Niedersachsen offers enterprises in the Life Sciences and Health sectors excellent development opportunities. In the Life Sciences sector alone there are 18 universities and universities of applied science, in biotechnology they are joined by 80 research institutes 230 workgroups. From this environment, new biotechnology enterprises emerge every year to find excellent growth opportunities in six business start-up and biotechnology parks.
Research focuses are mainly in infectious diseases, neurobiology and regenerative medicine, while biomedical technology and hearing aid technology have evolved into further core competences in Niedersachsen.

In the federal and state excellence initiative the excellence cluster ‘REBIRTH- From Regenerative Biology to Reconstructive Therapy’ and the ‘Hannover Biomedical Research School’ graduate school have received awards, and Georg-August-Universität Göttingen has been promoted to the inner circle of elite universities.

Health Industry and Medical Technology

The health industry counts among the most promising future business sectors, comprising healthcare provision and services, wellness, health tourism, e-health and medical technology.

Healthcare in Niedersachsen is excellent both as regards general medical care and advanced medical technology. More than 197 clinics with over 42,100 beds, a network of more than 35,483 doctors (13,250 of them in state hospitals), healthcare personnel and services are available to patients. Close cooperation is cultivated among general practitioners, acute hospital treatment and rehabilitation clinics.

Medical science at the very highest level is practised at Hannover Medical School (MHH), one of the most advanced and high-performing universities in Germany. Medical research and treatment foci are on transplant medicine, infectiology and immunology, heart and vascular medicine, hearing systems and cochlear implantation. MHH is one of the world’s largest organ transplant centres, and is making significant advances in regenerative medicine; doctors and scientists from Hannover have succeeded in developing bio-artificial heart valves for children that are accepted by the body as its own tissue, that grow with the child’s heart and thereby avert the need to carry out several operations to insert larger valves as the child grows to adulthood.
Furthermore, the MHH orthopaedic clinic at Annastift is one of Germany’s best-known and most modern specialist facilities for orthopaedics and orthopaedic surgery, working with the Otto Bock GmbH company, the world’s leading manufacturer of active functioning artificial limbs, to offer patients personalised care programmes from the planning of operations through to aftercare.

As a specialist clinic and research facility for the human nervous system, the International Neuroscience Institute (INI) brings patients to Hannover from all over the world. The most serious brain and nerve tumours, injuries to the spinal cord, vascular malformations and paralysis are successfully treated. The most modern operating methods, high-tech equipment and an experienced team of neurologists, neurosurgeons, neuro-radiologists and ENT specialists form the backbone of the clinic’s excellent reputation.

The medical technology sector in Niedersachsen is also highly diverse, with internationally renowned companies such as Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH in Duderstadt and highly innovative small and medium-sized enterprises with exceptional competences in biomedical technology. The hearing centres in Oldenburg and Hannover lead the world in developing diagnostic procedures and electronic signal processing, along with biocompatible materials for hearing enhancement technology and implanted hearing aids.

Hannover and Göttingen are home to exceptional competence in biophotonics; in recent years significant progress has been made on developing optical microscopes for medical research and diagnosis. Additionally, new procedures for the laser manipulation of tissue on micro- and nano scales have been developed that, among other benefits, enable completely new therapies for the treatment of defective vision.

In the field of medical technology, Niedersachsen offers companies all the prerequisites for the successful development of products along the whole value chain. At universities and research centres in Hannover, Göttingen and Braunschweig and many universities of applied sciences, excellent personnel for all the disciplines of medical technology are trained and fundamental research conducted at the highest level. Research centres such as the Niedersächsisches Zentrum für Biomedizintechnik in Hannover also devote themselves to applied research and offer companies comprehensive services in testing and approving newly-developed materials and products. Two university clinics and numerous other highly competent clinics enjoy excellent conditions for the conduct of clinical studies. In this way, for example, at HCTM, the clinical test centre for clinical phase I studies (a joint project of Fraunhofer ITEM, MHH and the Helmholtz Zentrum für Infektionsforschung) research finding and data from pre-clinical phases are transferred quickly to clinical research, closing the gap between developing the pharmaceutical agent and applications for the patient – until now the longest period during the development of new medicines, diagnostic processes and therapies.

A wide network of institutions including the Niedersachsen State initiative ‘Health Industry - Life Sciences’ or the investment and funding bank for Niedersachsen NBank offers companies that locate to Niedersachsen a broad range of support: advice on location, matchmaking with research and cooperation partners, help with patent issues and with applications for public funding support.