With the biotech company BioSpring, another world market leader is set to establish a high-tech manufacturing facility on the Innovation Campus.

The signs are also pointing to expansion for the biotechnology company BioSpring. BioSpring plans to build an additional, high-tech manufacturing facility on the Offenbach Innovation Campus while retaining its head office in Frankfurt. The company manufactures, among other things, active ingredients for pharmaceutical and biotech companies and is a European leader in the manufacture of synthetic DNA fragments for therapeutic drug applications.

“Offenbach as an industrial hub is thus enriched by a technology with outstanding prospects for the future,” says Mayor Dr Felix Schwenke, both relieved and pleased that the elaborate work to attract new companies is once again proving successful. The valve manufacturer Samson AG made the start in the spring. The world’s leading supplier of smart control valves plans to expand at its new Offenbach Innovation Campus site.

As in the case of Samson and also in other cases, OB Schwenke had sought direct contact with BioSpring’s top management immediately after he had first received signals from the market and had begun trusting discussions. He always had the support of the magistrate.

The biotech company fits in perfectly with the strategy of developing the 179-year-old chemicals site into a forward-looking industrial estate with various innovative technology areas after the acquisition of the site. “Following the decline of the chemical industry at this location, there will again be a high value added for the city here in the foreseeable future in the form of business tax revenue and jobs,” says Head of Economic Affairs Schwenke with relief.

Flagship company and job engine
BioSpring, which was established in 1997 and has been owner-managed ever since, is one of Hesse’s flagship companies in the biotech sector, which has been booming not only since the development of Corona vaccines. BioSpring, which was established in 1997 and has been owner-managed ever since, has been one of Hesse’s flagship companies in the booming biotech sector, and not just since the development of corona vaccines. Due to its enormous growth, BioSpring was recently named Hesse’s champion in the job engine category.

“At the Offenbach Innovation Campus, we will build significant new and additional capacity to continue to grow rapidly,” says Managing Director Sylvia Wojczewski. “We will create many new jobs, invest in high-tech clean rooms, which will allow us to meet the increased demand in the global market. Biotechnology is a key technology of the future as well as for Germany as an industrial hub.”

“We deal with the building blocks of life, specifically: with nucleic acids, the carriers of the genetic information of all living beings on our planet,” explains Managing Director Hüseyin Aygün. “As one of very few suppliers worldwide, BioSpring can synthetically manufacture DNA fragments, so-called oligonucleotides, in large quantities and of the highest quality for use in the fields of therapy, diagnostics and research and development. BioSpring thus supplies, among other things, the active ingredients for drugs of the future.”

BioSpring is also significantly involved in another application of oligonucleotides – genome editing (“gene scissors”). BioSpring has become the world’s leading supplier of this technology, which also uses therapeutic oligonucleotides.

Hüseyin Aygün says: “Active substances based on such oligonucleotides block genetic malfunctions and thus have the potential to enable new therapeutic approaches for a variety of previously untreatable diseases. The revolutionary technology of genome editing even provides the possibility of a cure for certain genetic diseases in the future.
Oligonucleotides are also used in diagnostics. For example, they are a key component in PCR tests, which are also used to detect COVID-19.

Successful economic performance
City Councillor Paul-Gerhard Weiss says that the city is currently working hard not only on a development plan, but also on a concept for connecting the industrial estate externally. Weiss, who as head of the planning and building department is a mainstay for the successful implementation of the settlements, is pleased about the additional work: “The short-term nature of the successes produces high work pressure for us. In this case, however, we are very happy about it. The demand for the commercial areas shows how attractive this location is. Offenbach thus has an important unique selling point in the region.”

“I am convinced that we will hear a lot more about BioSpring and its innovative developments in the future. They are a perfect fit for Offenbach and our strategy,” says Mayor Sabine Gross in support of the project. A very good side effect of the current settlement is that the former social building will be put to a new use under the aspect of sustainable construction.
“After the settlement of Samson, today is an outstandingly good day for the city of Offenbach for the second time since 2021,” says city treasurer Martin Wilhelm, assessing the settlement and its expected impact on the budget very positively.

Since taking on the task as head of the environment department, Mayor Gross has been a member of the “economic development round”, which has been used intensively by OB Schwenke since he took office, as have city planning department head Weiss and city treasurer Wilhelm. “Without the excellent cooperation in the magistrate team, such successes
would not be conceivable,” OB Schwenke clearly emphasises what he sees as an important advantage for Offenbach as a business hub. The OB also expressly emphasises the also very good cooperation with the deputy chairperson of the supervisory board of INNO Innovationscampus GmbH, Anja Fröhlich.

With a total area of 36 hectares, the Innovation Campus is the largest contiguous inner-city development area for commercial use in the Rhine-Main region. The owner is INNO, a real estate company of Offenbach City Works, which is developing and marketing the area together with its sister company OPG Offenbacher Projektentwicklungsgesellschaft mbH on behalf of the city.

“26 hectares of the campus are available for commercial development. Samson has acquired more than half of this, 14.3 hectares. BioSpring will locate its production on almost one hectare on Ketteler Strasse directly next to Samson and will convert the former social building of the former Farbwerke Hoechst for this purpose,” informs Daniela Matha, who oversees the entire real estate sector at the City Works and manages the INNO company together with City Works boss Peter Walther. The former canteen building to the north will be demolished and replaced by a contemporary production hall.

“Another important success factor for the settlement was also the good cooperation between Samson AG and BioSpring. I am very grateful to Samson for this,” adds OB Schwenke.