Why should you set up your life science business in the south of France?

Set up your life sciences company in the south of France, in Occitanie

Health, biotechnology and medical technology in the Occitanie region in the south of France:

• 240,000 employees in the health sector and 25,000 direct jobs in the industry
• 7,000 researchers 
• 700 companies including 500 in the product and services industry
• 3 teaching hospitals: Montpellier (France’s no.4 teaching hospital), Nimes and Toulouse
• Over 10,000 medical, pharmacy and healthcare students
• No.3 French region for R&D, no.4 for new company creations
• A specialist ‘Oncopole’, a unique site in Europe for the fight against cancer
• A competitive cluster dedicated to diagnosis and medtech 

Strategic regional expertise in: 

• Medical devices: diagnostics, medical imaging, other equipment
• Human biotechnology: applied genetics, molecular, cellular and structural biology, infectiology and retrovirology, DNA chips, etc.
• Plant biotechnology: tropical and Mediterranean agronomy, genetic mapping, biochemistry and physiology, gene enhancement.
• Research and development and scientific excellence in oncology, neurology, immunology, infectiology, gerontology, chronic illnesses, innovative therapies and eHealth. 

Occitanie’s innovative ecosystem

An ecosystem designed to facilitate life science companies’ growth in Occitanie, south of France

• Eurobiomed competitive cluster: a bi-regional cluster (Languedoc-Roussillon/Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur) which covers medical devices (biomarkers and in-vitro diagnostics), rare diseases and emerging pathologies.

• Euromediag: a network of public structures and private companies which make up France’s most dense medical diagnostic innovation network. Euromediag founded the l’European Diagnostic Cluster Alliance (EDCA) which federates 10 European diagnostic clusters and 360 European diagnostic companies.
• AxLR: the regional organisation for technology transfer acceleration (SATT). It contributes to the transformation of invention into innovation to develop products or services in line with industrial and commercial needs. 
• The IoT Valley in Toulouse is a 350-member cluster and incubator dedicated to the ‘Internet of Things’ which participates in the digital transformation of midcap companies. 

Life science companies in the south of France

Medical, health and biotech companies in Occitanie, in the south of France

Large multinationals, innovative SMEs and internationally renowned pharmaceutic laboratories are established in the south of France:

• Sanofi, with sites in Aramon and Montpellier (a factory and an R&D centre)
• Pierre Fabre which has 4 production sites and 4 labs near Toulouse
• Horiba Medical which has a production site in Montpellier 
• Eurofins, Idenix, Mabgene, Genepep, Deinove, AB7 Industries, Almerys, Argène, Cell-Easy, Zimmer Biomet Robotics, Bausch & Lomb (formerly Valeant)

Occitanie has a globally competitive medical devices industry including diagnostics and medical electronics:

• World leading companies: Bio-Rad, Horiba Medical, Bausch & Lomb, Thermo-Fischer, Erba (Transasia), BIT C2 Diagnostics. Cisbio Bioassays (IBA Group).
• Innovative SMEs: Diasys, I2A, DMS-Apelem, Medtech, Labover, Intrasense, etc.