Munich Startup: How is Munich currently doing as a biotech location? What are the biggest challenges and obstacles facing the industry?
Ralf Huss: Munich remains one of the most important biotech locations in Germany and Europe and certainly also enjoys global visibility. This is undoubtedly due in part to the high density of excellent and research-intensive universities and colleges, as well as non-university research institutions and biotech companies of various sizes. Furthermore, there continues to be an extraordinary entrepreneurial dynamic with great innovation potential from a wide variety of disciplines. In addition to traditional biotechnological and biomedical spin-offs with a single asset or portfolio of innovative modalities such as therapeutic DNA/RNA platforms or modeled protein structures, many new startup ideas are increasingly based on data-based models, sometimes in the form of "digital twins." With the help of a wide variety of computational or AI models (artificial intelligence ranging from basic machine learning to increasingly self-learning neural networks without an initial hypothesis), such ideas offer hope for accelerated and cost-effective development. Given the international competition, such opportunities will hopefully be successfully exploited in Europe, but especially in the USA and China.
However, this great innovative potential, particularly in biotechnology, is also confronted with increasing challenges. In addition to an often almost shockingly conservative and underfunded patent strategy, it is primarily the shortage of skilled workers, both academics and technical personnel, that stands in the way of the successful transfer of ideas from basic research to industrial use or a biopharmaceutical or medical technology/digital application. For this translation, there is often a lack of laboratory space with the necessary temporal and technical flexibility, as well as the equipment that would enable conceptual experiments, for example, in the field of cell and gene therapy. Such a sometimes somewhat difficult overall constellation in an otherwise very promising scientific and innovative ecosystem also complicates sufficient access to sustainable early-stage financing.
Munich Startup: Biotech startups seem to operate largely in their own bubble. What points of contact do you see between startups from biotech and other industries?
Ralf Huss: Commercial biotechnology has been very successful in the past. This can be seen in the number of new companies and spin-offs, as well as the volume of investment made in these areas. However, this development has stalled recently, certainly due to or exacerbated by the pandemic and the changing geopolitical situation. Neither of these factors should now serve as an excuse, but rather as an incentive to explore new paths. This is especially true for cross-sector thinking and action, which we at BioM want to increasingly promote. We have a growing number of start-ups here in Munich and Bavaria, particularly in the areas of digitalization and data utilization, as well as in almost all areas of the deep-tech industry. Even if quantum computers will not be available to biomedicine in the next five years, closer cooperation and mutual benefit will undoubtedly be beneficial for the future of work and business. We are already seeing exciting spin-offs from quantum optics, physics, and nanotechnology in the field of diagnostic and therapeutic applications.
BioM has supported 250 company start-ups
Munich Startup: What functions does BioM fulfill within the Munich innovation ecosystem?
Ralf Huss: The BioM Biotech Cluster Development GmbH is a one-stop shop for medical biotechnology in Munich and Bavaria. As a Bavarian network organization, BioM supports startups and SMEs with its extensive network in establishing and expanding their businesses, as well as in establishing new and global business contacts. As a point of contact, BioM offers comprehensive consulting and specialized coaching, training, and mentoring programs specifically for aspiring company founders. In addition, it implements BioM since the beginning of 2023 the physical incubator MaxL (Munich Accelerator for Life Sciences & Medicine) primarily for pre-seed projects and early startups in the biotech and healthtech sectors. Since 2011, BioM has also coordinated the pre-startup competition sponsored by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs. m4 Award in the field of biomedicine, with a total of €2.5 million in each call for proposals. This accelerates the translation of academic projects. Over the past 25 years, BioM has supported a total of over 250 start-ups. Their successes make up a large part of the local innovation ecosystem.
Munich Startup: What new priorities do you want to set as Managing Director of BioM?
Ralf Huss: The above undoubtedly determines most of the key aspects and thematic focuses of my work at BioM. I place particular importance on constructive communication, for example, between biomedical researchers or clinical physicians, computer or software engineers, data scientists, or quantum physicists. It is precisely at these interfaces that most disruptive innovations arise, and we want to establish and apply formats that promote these interactions. However, it is equally important to understand the biopharmaceutical market of the future and to use these resources sustainably and in a targeted manner. As in other industrial sectors, this requires a functioning supply chain and crisis-proof production sites.
Munich Startup: BioM has been connecting the Bavarian biotech industry for a quarter of a century. What innovations in biotech and life sciences do you expect in the next 25 years?
Ralf Huss: I am convinced that here in Munich and Bavaria, we have every opportunity to implement disruptive innovations for a clinically proven biomedicine of the future. This continues to apply to novel approaches to individual risk assessment, better disease prevention through earlier and more accurate diagnoses, and better prediction of treatment response through the digitization of information, the large-scale use of health data together with AI-based clinical decision support. Robert Feynman's maxim, "there is plenty of room at the bottom," still holds true, especially for startups and their innovations.
