Sweden: A European leader in life sciences

Sweden's pharma and biotech industry offers a wide range of investment opportunities, including in-licensing, collaboration and direct investment. Firms cover the entire value chain, with particular strengths in drug discovery and development, medical engineering and biopharmaceutical production

Focus on translational and interdisciplinary research

With more than 40,000 employees and over 800 companies, Sweden's life science industry is one of Europe's finest. A century-long tradition in medical research and development has laid the foundation to the current successes and efforts.

Swedish research has long since emphasized the need to be close to patients and basic research activities are often integrated with clinical research, a major advantage in the development of new therapies and treatments. Research objectives are often approached holistically, by bringing together a wide range of disciplines and expertise to solve complex problems.

Excellence in major research and industry fields

Sweden's strengths cover a surprisingly large share of the relevant biotech fields, given its nine million population. A survey comparing biomedical research productivity in the US and European Union places Sweden first in four out of five categories measuring citations and publications in relation to population and R&D expenditure. Sweden is home to Karolinska Institutet, widely regarded as one of the world's leading biomedical universities, the committees responsible for awarding the Nobel Prize as well as two of Europe's most distinguished biotech clusters - the Stockholm Uppsala Bioregion and Medicon Valley in Malmö/Lund/Copenhagen.

Industry/academia collaboration

University/industry cooperation has been fundamental to the growth of the Swedish life science industry, and these interactions have long since been a natural part of the development process. Excellent academic research and industry-applied development continues to drive biomedical industry growth in Sweden.

Everybody within easy reach

Research and industrial activities are concentrated in Sweden's three largest cities and a number of university cities, connected by efficient road, rail and air links. Distances are short, facilitating cross-collaboration between firms and research groups.

Great business and R&D environment

Choosing Sweden makes sense from most perspectives. This is a country accustomed to international business operations - exports account for nearly 50 percent of GDP. Moreover, Sweden regularly tops rankings of the world's most competitive countries.

Competitive cost location

Sweden is cost-competitive both for research intensive and large-scale advanced manufacturing activities, as evidenced by a range of recent expansion investments. Salary levels for life science personnel are significantly lower than in the UK and Germany, for example.

Strong pipeline in Sweden's biotech industry

Sweden is home to both large pharma companies such as AstraZeneca and medical device manufacturers such as Elekta, Gambro, Getinge and Mölnlycke Health Care. Biotech firms are active over the entire value chain of new therapy and drug development, with particular strengths in drug discovery and development, biotech tools and supply and bioproduction. The largest firms - Biovitrum, GE Healthcare and Phadia - each employ more than 500 people in Sweden.

Century-long tradition in drug development

Astra (now part of AstraZeneca) and Pharmacia (now part of Pfizer) were founded in Sweden in 1913 and 1911 respectively and have been instrumental to Sweden's achievements in drug development. Drugs developed in Sweden include Crestor, Detrol/Detrusitol, Fragmin, Genotropin, Losec/Prilosec, Nexium, Plendil, Pulmicort, Seloken Zoc/Toprol and Xalatan.

Today, AstraZeneca employs some 13,000 staff in Sweden and leads global R&D in three of six therapeutic areas from Swedish sites (cardiovascular and gastrointestinal diseases, neuroscience and respiratory and inflammation). Some 40 percent of the company's global R&D workforce is based in Sweden, from which the company also runs its only research lab dedicated solely to biotech drug development. AstraZeneca's Gärtuna site south of Stockholm is the world's largest tablet manufacturing plant.

By the mid-1990s, Pharmacia was one of the world's largest pharma companies. In a move to focus on the later stages of drug development, Pharmacia merged with Upjohn. The merged entity was subsequently acquired by Pfizer. In the process, Pharmacia spun off a number of activities, leading to the creation of several new Swedish biotech firms: Biacore, a supplier of systems for protein interaction analysis; Biovitrum, a biopharma company focused on a number of common diseases; and Phadia, a leader in allergy diagnostics. Pharmacia Biotech, active in protein separations and discovery systems, evolved through a merger into Amersham Biosciences, which was acquired by GE Healthcare in 2004. Today, Pfizer runs one of Europe´s few commercial biotech manufacturing plants in Sweden, for the growth hormone Genotropin and for Fragmin, a low-molecular-weight heparin. In 2005, the site in Strängnäs was chosen over ten other global manufacturing sites for expansion of Pfizer's global capabilities in biopharma production.

Large licensing deals

Using Sweden as a source for innovative drug discovery and development is popular. Over 30 global pharma and biotech companies capitalize on Sweden for in-licensing, clinical research or partnerships with academic research institutions.

In a record-breaking deal with Sweden's Biovitrum in 2003, Amgen acquired development and marketing rights to Biovitrum's small molecule enzyme inhibitors for diabetes treatment. The collaboration was extended in 2006. Similar deals have been struck between firms such as Boehringer Ingelheim and Medivir, Astellas Pharma and Carlsson Research and between Serono and Index Pharmaceuticals. A new development is for Swedish biotech firms to retain commercialization or co-promotion rights in the Nordic countries, effectively seeking to become fully integrated biopharma companies in this market. Biovitrum and Medivir have struck such agreements, for example.

Thriving biotech tools segment

Sweden is also an ideal place to source biotech tools technology, with expertise in fields such as bio-separation, nanobiotech and proteomics. There are some 90 biotech tools companies, with pharma and biological research, drug development and production, and diagnostic tests and equipment being the most common applications. The largest firm is GE Healthcare, which has more than 1,400 employees in Sweden and leads its global protein separations business from Uppsala. Other significant players include Affibody, Biacore, Biotage and Cellectricon.

Karolinska Institutet - leader in biomedical research

Sweden's achievements in biomedicine can partly be attributed Karolinska Institutet - the world's fourth-best biomedical university according to the global peer review ranking published by the Times Higher Education Supplement. It is one of Europe's largest medical universities, and accounts for 30 percent of the medical training and 40 percent of the medical academic research in Sweden. It has also been named one of the world's best academic workplaces, in a survey published in the Scientist magazine.

Other Swedish universities with important activities in biomedicine include Uppsala University and Lund University (placed 70th and 98th in the above ranking) and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg (placed 58th and 59th in the technology universities category). Strong research is also carried out at the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University, home to Sweden's national center of excellence for metabolic diseases.

Healthcare system a catalyst in drug development

At an early stage, Sweden built an advanced healthcare system, open to trying new technologies and treatments. Industry/academia collaborations are common, and have been for a long time. An advanced clinical trials environment is another feature. Today, more than 30 of the largest drug companies perform clinical trials in Sweden.

Part of the credit goes to the Medical Products Agency (MPA), the widely respected regulatory authority. Strong ties exist between the MPA, academia, the health care system and the pharma industry which facilitate both clinical trials and the drug approval process. Centralized public health has also fostered the establishment of highly reliable systems of medical records with common processes and methods. Sweden's databases comprise a unique collection of medical and genetic information. For example, Sweden has the most extensive twin register in the world with 140,000 twins.

Opportunities for Indian companies in Sweden

Sweden is the fourth largest country in Europe when it comes to the number of biotech companies but there is a lack of production capacity, which might be a window of opportunity for Indian companies. Indian companies focus on generics and thereby miss innovative drug discovery. Strategic alliances with innovative Swedish companies could therefore be important.

(Source: Invest in Sweden Agency (ISA): www.isa.se)