The pharmaceutical wing of the Swedish biotech industry has more than doubled since 1996 to 52 companies today, but a new report on the sector predicts, these companies ‘will be like toothless fighting dogs’ if they do not have sufficient capital.
With several companies, such as Biovitrum, mentioned in the report as waiting to go public, and ‘the time to get venture capital for innovative but immature scientific ideas definitely over’ further rapid growth looks threatened.
Out of more than 380 biotech companies, the 52 engaged in developing pharmaceuticals form the biggest subsection, after medical devices. Nine of these are publicly quoted.
The main disease areas for R&D are: Inflammation and 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.
The financial profiles of the companies vary greatly: from Meda AB generating black figures, to Karo Bio with the highest burn rate in Sweden.
Investors the report says are now looking for ideas beyond proof-of-principle stage. The industry will have to go through a period of consolidation and there is a potential risk that Sweden will be regarded as a one-stop shop for scientific ideas, packed into companies.
‘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. It is possible that these companies may go through a backward integration and acquire powerful drug discovery platforms at a very discounted price.’
The report focuses on 52 biopharma companies identified with either research and development (R&D) or search and development (S&D) activities in Sweden. It covers industry dynamics, market segmentation, collaboration, financial development, pipeline status and much more. The analysis deals with status, development, direction, strategy and position. The report also includes extensive profiles of the 52 companies covered in the study.
Swedish Biopharma Industry-The Next Wave is published by Stockholm business intelligence firm, BioSeeker Group and costs US $1,150.
www.bioseeker.com/

Comments
Post new comment