Nordic Life Science 1
he Swedish government has so far presented severa
l crisis relief packages to protect businesses and jobs. It has for example, as of March 27th, presented a capital contribution to Almi Företagspartner in order to increase their lendings to small and mid-sized companies and they have also increased the lending limit for the public Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK). “The government’s efforts are in part missing the target for this industry,” said Strigård in March. “Only two percent of all financing activities in this industry in 2007-2018 were bank loans, and a big part of the staff are consultants. Swedish life science companies need state capital, which in turn can work as a magnet to attract private capital.” The life science industries in the other Nordic countries are affected in a similar way, and so far their governments’ efforts and crisis relief packages are both similar in some aspects but also differ somewhat from each other. They are also still updated as this magazine goes to print. ”In Iceland, everyone is focused on keeping their people safe in order to secure production,” said Erna Björnsdóttir, Manager at Invest in Iceland, in March. Many companies in this sector are small and vulnerable. Some report that investments deals are on hold, and they are hoping that the government will provide some special support, said Björnsdóttir in March. As of end of March it was for example, announced that ISK 400 million will be allocated to the Technology Development Fund in Iceland. The Finnish government has also proposed measures to secure jobs, people’s incomes and facilitate companies’ financial situations. ”We have quite many measures that the government is doing for the companies at the moment, especially for the small and midsize companies. For example Business Finland has new financing instruments,” said Carmela Kantor Aaltonen, CEO of Finnish Bioindustries, in March. The publicly owned Finnvera’s warranty assurance 28 has been increased from 2 to 10 billion EUR, Kantor Aaltonen adds. ”But the problem is cash money, which is low. Companies have difficulties to pay rents, salaries etc.” The Finance Ministry of Denmark has also provided measures and revealed that they are prepared to reach out to assist small and medium-sized companies, as well as entrepreneurs. ”The conduct of clinical trials is affected for example, either halting initiation of new studies and/or halting recruitment to studies,” said Per Spindler, Director of BioPeople, the Danish life science cluster, in March. ”The load on the capacity of hospitals and priorities due to coronavirus diseased patients are the main reason. In addition, many private and public labs operate at reduced pace.” There are financial investments from the overnment, the Innovation Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation and others, to support coronavirus related research and development, says Spindler. ”EU institutions such as the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) are also increasing investments and calling for partnerships related to coronavirus. In my opinion, this is very appropriate in view of the pandemic crisis.” Life science companies have an interest in normalization of the situation, both research-wise and investment-wise after the pandemic crisis has eased. ”The situation for Danish biotech and life science companies relates not only to normalization in Denmark or the Nordic countries, but it relates also to countries abroad in terms of supply chains, partnerships, markets, hospital capacity, etc,” reminds Spindler. ”There is currently discussions about the medical device regulations in EU – and I sense that the industry would appreciate sensible considerations for new regulatory requirements and the timing of their implementation.” The industry is also engaged in the supply chains for hospital equipment and protective utilities for coronavirus patients and healthcare workers. Other industry sectors are re-orchestrating manufacturing processes, e.g. for the production of anti-infective agents.” NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG