New SwedenBIO report shows major expansion and maturity in Sweden’s drug development pipeline

The Swedish drug discovery and development pipeline is expanding and maturing, with more projects starting up and moving into later phases, while also increasingly attracting international capital. This is shown in a new report that the Swedish life science industry organization SwedenBIO has released today, building upon data from 420 projects.

“Since the last report back in 2016, we have seen growth in particular among companies with projects in clinical phases,” says Sara Gunnerås, editor of the report. “More companies have reached phase III or are close to market approval of their products.”

The expansion is also illustrated by the number of employees, which is growing. Furthermore, the vast majority of the companies, 80% in total, are planning to either employ more staff or enroll consultants in 2020-2021. Amongst the therapeutic areas that emerge the strongest are oncology and neurology, followed by endocrinology and infectious diseases. Rare diseases account for 26% of the projects covered by the report. The Swedish life science industry’s strong ties to academia and healthcare are also apparent in this report, with 59% of the companies originating from these sectors.

“I find it particularly encouraging to see how the companies are liaising and collaborating internationally,” says Helena Strigård, Director General of SwedenBIO. “This is vital if the innovations spurring from our dynamic ecosystem are to turn into growing, successful companies.”

In fact, every single company in the report has strong business ties to the international life science community, through international members of the company´s board of directors, collaborations with science groups in academia or industry and license or distribution agreements with foreign companies etc.

And the courtship is mutual; Half of the projects have already attained international funding with the associated business contacts and dividends.

“Not only do we possess an impressive research pipeline, but we can also lay claim to extensive connections to international experts and business networks which demonstrates our readiness to enter the global market,“ continues Strigård.

“Since SwedenBIO’s inception, this is precisely what we have been working for: to build a solid, local Swedish life science community with strong business-to-business contacts between companies of all sizes and levels of maturity, while connecting to the global best-of-the-best within science, financing, regulatory services etc. We are convinced that this is the road to success.”

“This is why we produce this report, to show what is currently happening, to make it easily accessible to connect with us, and to see where we are heading.“

Want to connect with Swedish and Nordic life sciences? Join us Nordic Life Science Days 19-21 April 2021 Malmö www.nlsdays.com

SwedenBIO, the trade association for the Swedish life science sector has more than 260 members operating across all sub-sectors from pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical technology to diagnostics. SwedenBIO serves to the benefit the entire life science industry in Sweden and is a member-driven, private, non-profit organization. The main objective is to contribute to improving the conditions for the life science industry for the benefit of industry growth and business development. Sweden’s life science industry accounts for 20% of Sweden's net exports.

The report "The Swedish Drug Discovery and Development Pipeline 2020" is done by SwedenBIO, in collaboration with Business Sweden, Business Region Gothenburg, Invest in Skåne, Invest Stockholm and Vinnova.

Download the report from swedenbio.se/reports