Swedish biopharma industry riding high
Despite having fewer than 9m inhabitants, Sweden has more than 380 biotech companies.
Despite having fewer than 9m inhabitants, Sweden has more than 380 biotech companies.
The Swedish biopharma industry has more than doubled in size, from 25 companies in 1996 to 52 companies today, says a new report, Swedish Biopharma Industry - The Next Wave, by BioSeeker Group, a European business and competitive intelligence company in the field of biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry.
The report analyses in detail the pharmaceutical biotechnology industry segment in Sweden and focuses on 52 biopharma companies identified with either r&d or search and development (s&d) activities. It covers industry dynamics, market segmentation, collaboration, financial development and pipeline status.
According to the report, the predominant disease groups for r&d are: inflammation/autoimmune, metabolic, cancer, infectious, and neurological diseases. Of 86 identified r&d projects: 61 are in preclinical stage, 12 in phase I, 11 in phase II and only two in phase III.
However, the time to get venture capital for innovative but immature scientific ideas is definitely over, it warns. The industry will have to go through consolidation and must be equipped with substantial capital, 'otherwise they will be like toothless fighting dogs in combat with real ones'. There is a potential risk that Sweden will be regarded as a one-stop shop for scientific ideas, packed into companies, the report believes.
Today's winners in the Swedish biopharma industry are those that have a strong focus on sales and marketing but refrain from capital-intensive and high-risk early research, which is outsourced instead.