Nordic Life Science 1
The financial crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic
has struck life science startups hard. These are innovative companies that already, before the crisis faced financial challenges. Many of the affected companies do not yet have employees, products or revenues. “Critical innovations are threatened,” stated Ebba Fåhraeus, CEO of SmiLe Incubator, in April, and she called for efforts to save the “valuable and strategically important Swedish startups during the COVID-19 pandemic.” If these companies go bankrupt, patents are lost, and if that happens Sweden will lose out on new pharmaceuticals and new diagnostics. Product development demands large investments and takes a long time in the life science industry. During a crisis like this the willingness to take a financial risk decreases among investors. “Thanks to venture capital these companies can be run, developed and generate ideas,” states Fåhraeus. “For example, during the past five years SmiLe companies have contributed with 695 million SEK in income taxes to Sweden.” July 1st the incubator announced that it will receive 11.8 million SEK (5 million SEK per year for two years as well as additional grants, based on the portfolio of companies for 2022 through 2024) from Vinnova, the Swedish government’s agency for innovation. The grant is included in Vinnova’s ”support to startups through excellent incubators” and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency is increasing its support to the business community. SmiLe has also announced that they are launching its own support measures to help startup companies cope with the corona situation, including a lowered membership fee, opportunities to apply for verification support that can use for salaries and free business advice as part of the Lund Support collaborative initiative. Recruitment company PharmaRelations has activities in all the Nordic countries and hence, insight into the job situation in this region. “In the life science industry we have seen a decline during March and foremost in April when it comes to a diminished inflow of new positions, but on our own behalf we have during May and also June returned to previous levels,” says Fredrik Anjou, CEO, PharmaRelations. “The number of recruitments is really increasing for our activities and the Ebba Fåhraeus, CEO, SmiLe Incubator NORDIC LIFE SCIENCE 41 number of medical positions also has a higher demand and is very equal to last year; here, we have even see an increase .” He and his colleagues do not see any large differences among the Nordic countries and they have seen a very large demand for regulatory positions and in quality assessment roles. “Commercial positions have been most severely impacted, foremostly positions that involve customer contacts, and especially connections with healthcare services. “There is still a clear insecurity here,” continues Anjou. “In certain cases we have adjusted the consultant roles together with our customers, where customers, consultants and we as a company have had to make concessions and the situation is the same for all Nordic countries. Recruitment to the industry within the same segment has been very weak.” He also notes that lately they have seen an upswing for these positions, which is positive. PHOTO JENNY LEYMAN