Paris Region is one of Europe’s leading Life Science clusters and a natural home to major healthcare companies. Over the years, strong public-private partnerships have supported the growth of the ecosystem thereby creating favourable conditions for the emergence of a PropSci market (property applied to Life Sciences). As U.S. and European investors are turning to Paris Region to invest in this new real-estate asset class, let us delve into what makes Paris Region a unique PropSci market.

A strong innovation ecosystem

Paris Region has a strong tradition of being at the forefront of innovation. First, it files a considerably greater number of patents than many of its European neighbouring regions. It also has some important assets such as a dynamic research environment, dense entrepreneurial networks, state-of-the-art hospitals, and well-qualified medical researchers and doctors.

Second, with institutions such as the CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research), the INSERM (French National Institute of Health and Medical Research) and 10% of international clinical research studies conducted on its territory, Paris Region is recognized worldwide for the excellence of its scientific and clinical research.

Life Science companies wanting to expand to Paris Region will find the right infrastructure and labs to develop R&D activities, a pool of highly skilled talents to recruit from and a range of office space. On top of that, young startups can and access funding mechanisms to help kick start their business.

A Region tailored to meet the needs of startups

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the French government made investments in Life Science R&D a top priority. This led the sector to grow very rapidly with venture capital investments for French biotech startups doubling between 2020 and 2021 to reach €1.6 bn, the highest level amongst all continental European countries.

With the numerous fundraises of startups, office building transformation became a second priority. Indeed, research shows that before their first rounds of fundraisings, startups usually set up inside a business incubator but as they mature and scale, their requirements change, and they need different premises.

Hence, Paris Region has been developing top of the range incubators and accelerators and other types of flexible office space for shorter periods of time. Other incubators have more recently emerged at the initiative of private investment funds specializing in tech/biotech (such as the Passage de l’Innovation in Bastille financed by the iBionext fund’s founder).

A wide range of office space available

With the growing interest shown by international biotechs and medtechs in Paris Region, came the development of commercial & specialized office spaces but also medical equipment, personnel and patient areas. Overall, Paris Region’s PropSci market provides 3 types of office space: Clusters, Incubators, and more flexible options.

Life Science Clusters

Paris Region is home to 4 major Life Science clusters: Genopole, Paris Biocitech, Medicen and Cancer Campus. These 4 major clusters bring together companies of all sizes, research labs and academia to develop synergies and cooperation around a shared theme. The aim of these clusters is to help businesses develop their innovation capacities, boosting the industrial activities with high technological potential and strengthen France’s attractiveness on a global scale.

Genopole, located 30 km south of Paris in Evry-Courcouronnes and Corbeil-Essonnes is a leading biocluster dedicated to research and innovation hosting 77 businesses, 19 academic laboratories (Including two national reference centers for genomics), a hospital and the University of Évry. With its flexible, equipped or non-equipped floor spaces for offices and laboratories, its incubators are entirely dedicated to biotech startups.

Paris Biocitech is another real estate solution provider that specializes in real estate solutions for health companies. Biocitech is located in Romainville, a suburban area of Paris, and is comprised of 21,000m² of lab, office, and storage space across seven buildings.

Medicen is a cluster and a global hub for health innovative technologies with more than 480 companies & academics. Their aim is to federate the health ecosystem and organise numerous events for their members. They also provide support for international health companies wanting to expand.

Cancer Campus is a Biocluster focused on oncology around the Gustave-Roussy Institute. The objective of Cancer Campus is to allow the development and hosting of companies on multidisciplinary themes such as medicine, imaging, instrumentation, medical devices, ITand e-health, within an internationally recognized academic and clinical environment.

Incubators & other Flexible Options for startups

Specially tailored to early-stage startups looking for flexible office space and easy access to technological equipment and platforms as well as general services (legal, compliance, communications & marketing), Paris Region’s incubators are numerous and readily available for Life Science startups wanting to scale and grow fast.

For instance, Ipeps, the Paris Brain Institute’s startup incubator & the first innovation accelerator dedicated to brain diseases in France located in the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, provides 2,500m2 of office space capable of welcoming 700 researchers and clinicians. More than providing space, it helps startups build connections & new partnerships and detect opportunities for business.

Embedded in the new Servier’s R&D center, BioLabs will be operating a 2,000m2 life science coworking facility in Paris-Saclay in 2023. The second 1500m2 life science coworking facility will be in the APHP Hôtel-Dieu Hospital and is set to open in early 2023. Targeted at high-potential, early-stage scientific ventures, both sites will provide shared open lab spaces, private offices, and workstations for biotechs.

Villejuif Biopark is another incubator dedicated to welcoming new Biotech & Healthtech companies. The premises include 5 340m2 of rental space organized into two wings around a central patio, 70 rental units starting from 40m2, an underground parking area, common areas, and meeting rooms.
Paris BioTech Santé is an incubator located at the heart of Paris which supports the creation and development of health startups.

DocCity LifeSciences, for its part, offers innovative companies specialized spaces, consisting of L1 and L2 laboratories with shared services, to accelerate their growth and enable them to increase their success in their R&D development phases. DocCity’s mission is to create new premises to facilitate the development of biotechnology companies by providing them with technical resources and promoting scientific excellence.

Located on the doorstep of Paris, DocCity is developing multiple collaborations with local institutions (hospitals, academic centers, research institutions, biopharmaceutical companies, local public players, etc.) thereby contributing to the excellence of Paris Region’s Life Sciences ecosystem. DocCity also wishes to set up, within a pleasant and privileged workspace, a sharing of competences and cross-collaboration between all actors of the Region’s Life Science ecosystem, whether at the research, scientific, clinical or industrial level.

Kadans Science Partner is a European leader in the development, investment and management of scientific buildings and campuses for innovative companies in the life sciences sector. It has recently been involved in the development of the ZAC Campus Grand Parc, in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) where it will operate a 23,500 m2 premises.

As the leading Life Sciences hub in France, Paris Region has shown a capacity to adapt to the growing demands of the different types of office space generated by the growth of the French health ecosystem. As France is heading toward more sovereignty over the production of clinical drugs, a range of new premises will be built and tailored to batch production. If the challenge for medtechs and biotechs is to find the right location for their business, there is no doubt Paris Region’s Propsci asset class will attract more and more investors looking for space and talent at the same time.
 

To find out more about Paris Region’s health ecosystem, visit our page.

If your company is planning on expanding to Paris Region, make sure you download our operational guidebooks available here.