How strong is the healthcare industry in Bavaria?

In Bavaria, the healthcare industry with its clinics and industry has a special status. With over 60 billion in gross value added and over 1.2 million employees, this is an important sector in the Free State. The industrial health industry, consisting of medical technology, biotechnology and digital health, is one of the most important sectors in the Free State with over 12 billion in gross value added and over 170,000 employees. Some international corporations, medium-sized companies and hidden champions, as well as a very good start-up and innovation scene around the university hospitals, start-up centers and the clusters and networks in Bavaria play a decisive role in this.

The success is due to the inventors' inventiveness and the entrepreneurs' courage. Three decisive factors are important for this:

• a first-class science
• an excellent medicine (six university hospitals, more than 400 clinics, about 58,000 physicians and about 11,000 dentists in Bavaria)
• an innovative and high-performance industry

The interaction of these three factors at the highest level makes the decisive advantage.
The importance of a good health economy also has a direct impact on the health care system, the quality of life and also economic performance.

In order to further expand its top position, the Bavarian State Ministry is consistently focusing on its strengths and thus aims to create the framework conditions for innovation, the digital transformation and thus the basis for sustainable and long-term growth.

The newest study , to analyze the current situation in a structured way and derive recommendations for action, was developed by the STMWi in close coordination with the StMGP and all acting stakeholders, building on the StMGP study from 2019 , was conducted. The two studies conducted by WifOR were presented at the recent MedTechSummit 2021 .

The Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy (StMWi) is currently taking an in-depth look at the economic and innovation policy significance of important sectors such as the pharmaceutical industry, medical technology or even biotechnology. The digitization of the health and care industry (GPflWi) is also receiving a great deal of increasing attention in the political discussion. The companies behind it and their activities in development, production and sales as well as in the field of research and development are summarized as the so-called industrial health and care economy (iGW).

The study examines the importance of the industrial health economy for the Bavarian business and innovation location along different thematic focal points. As a result of the analysis, it becomes clear what significance the industry has for the state in comparison to other sectors of the economy and what strategic fields of action exist for the stronger positioning of the industrial health economy.

In 2009, Minister President Markus Söder, as then Minister of Health, commissioned the first Bavaria Study "Growth and Employment Potentials in the Health Care Industry in Bavaria and Selected Health Regions of the State". Now a follow-up study, the "Second Bavaria Study" is available, which, with a ten-year comparison, takes stock of and analyzes the health and care industry in Bavaria as a whole and separately for the 50 health regionsplus, as well as eliciting strengths and weaknesses of the industry in Bavaria as a basis for economic and structural policy measures.
With the first Bavaria Study, a cornerstone was laid in 2010 for measuring the health industry in Germany. The current study builds on this preliminary work. As a Bavarian special feature compared to other studies (e.g. state reports of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy - BMWi), a ten-year comparison is used to record regional development in the health regionsplus and also the performance of the care industry.

Both studies impressively demonstrate the symbiosis of a strong health and Nursing industry with the hospitals, medical practices, preventive & rehabilitation facilities, as well as care and industry with medical technology, biotechnology, human pharmaceuticals, and the field of digital health. This sector is one of the most important innovation and employment drivers in the Free State of Bavaria. Digitization, demographic change and medical-technical progress are leading to this upswing, as are increased health awareness and heightened expectations among the population.

Compared to the Bavarian automotive industry , the health and care industry generated around euro 60 billion in gross value added in 2019, around euro 14 billion more than the previous year, and employed more than five times as many people in the Free State of Bavaria. This means that around one in ten euros of Bavaria's economic power is generated in this sector and one in six jobs in Bavaria is secured by the healthcare and nursing industry.

In the studies, the data was collected in a structured manner and three recommendations for action for medical and nursing care as well as six recommendations for action for the industrial healthcare industry were derived. In this way, further development is to be tackled together with all stakeholders in order to further expand Bavaria in the area of health economy.