After the decision of the globally successful valve manufacturer Samson AG to move entirely from Frankfurt to Offenbach, another spectacular move to the Offenbach innovation campus is now certain: the Frankfurt biotech company Biospring will build a high-tech production facility on the former Clariant site in Offenbach .

Unlike Samson, Biospring's headquarters will remain in Frankfurt.

Among other things, the owner-managed company produces active ingredients for pharmaceutical and biotech companies and is a leader in the production and rapid amplification of synthetic DNA fragments, without which certain therapeutic drugs and diagnostics could not be produced.

Jochen Remert

Airport editor and correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.

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The industrial location of Offenbach will thus receive another technology with outstanding future prospects, commented Mayor Felix Schwenke (SPD) on the recent settlement coup.

He can also claim this success for himself and for the economic development for which he is responsible.

According to Schwenke, he always reacts as quickly as possible as soon as he receives signals from the economy.

That was also the case with Biospring.

Departure on a small scale

According to Schwenke, the company fits in perfectly with the strategy of developing the 179-year-old chemical site into a forward-looking commercial area after acquiring the site.

With the combination of the two highly innovative companies Biospring and Samson, the Offenbach innovation campus represents the industrial departure into the future that is necessary throughout Germany on a small scale, Schwenke continued.

Biospring was founded in 1997 by Sylvia Wojczewski and Hüseyin Aygün while they were still working on their chemistry doctorate at Goethe University.

Since then, as managing partners, they have developed the company into one of the world's largest manufacturers of synthetic nucleic acids, which act as carriers of the genetic information of all living things.

“We will create many new jobs”

Biospring is therefore an example of a highly innovative company in Hesse, and not just since the development of corona vaccines in the booming biotech industry.

According to the information provided, the duo started with six employees, meanwhile more than 370 men and women work for Biospring.

The significant increase in personnel has recently also brought the company the title of Hessen Champion in the Job Engine category.

"We will build up considerable new and additional capacities on the Offenbach innovation campus in order to be able to continue to grow rapidly," said Managing Director Wojczewski about the expansion in Offenbach. “We will create many new jobs, invest in high-tech clean rooms and can thus meet the increased demand on the world market. Biotechnology is a key technology for the future and for Germany as an industrial location,” she continued. According to reports, new, highly qualified jobs in the lower three-digit range can be expected in Offenbach.

"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," explained Managing Director Aygün.

“As one of the very few suppliers worldwide, Biospring can synthetically produce DNA fragments, so-called oligonucleotides, in large quantities and of the highest quality for use in therapy, diagnostics and research and development.

Biospring thus supplies, among other things, the active ingredients for medicines of the future”.

"New Therapy Approaches"

Oligonucleotides are already used in diagnostic practice today.

For example, they are a key ingredient in the PCR tests used to detect Covid-19 infections.

According to the information, the Biospring researchers are also significantly involved in the development of the so-called gene scissors, experts speak of genome editing.

Oligonucleotides are also used for this.

Biospring has developed into the "world's leading supplier", it says there.

"Active substances based on such oligonucleotides block genetic malfunctions and thus have the potential to enable new therapeutic approaches for a large number of previously untreatable diseases," Aygün continued.

Genome editing even opens up the possibility of curing certain genetic diseases.