Virtual press conference “Game changer in the pandemic – What is the sentiment in the German biotechnology sector?”

Press release

The German biotechnology sector’s expectations of policymakers are high. This was shown by the results of the annual trend survey by the biotech association BIO Deutschland. The assessment of the current and future political climate is much more positive compared to previous years. Although there are cases where the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the current and future business situation, most companies do not attribute their situation to the crisis. German biotechnology companies set a new record for capital raised in 2020, with more than €3 billion euros coming in via the stock market and venture capital funding. Two vaccine developers – BioNTech and CureVac – accounted for around half of this total.

The annual trend survey, which BIO Deutschland has been conducting since 2006, revealed a largely stable assessment of the current and future business situation and hardly any change in plans for employment and R&D investment. In contrast, the assessment of the current and future political climate differed markedly from previous years. Some 53 percent of respondents described the climate as good in 2020 (2019: 28 percent), while 58 percent expect it to improve in 2021 (2019: 20 percent). Overall, around 60 percent of companies said their business situation was not affected by the pandemic, while 40 percent reported they felt an impact, either positive or negative, from the pandemic. For 2021, 30 percent of respondents expect the pandemic to affect their business situation.

With more than €3 billion euros in capital raised in 2020, investment in the sector reached a new record high (the previous record was some €1.3 billion in 2018). Venture capital funding totalled €942 million, while €2.11 billion was raised via the stock market. This included two IPOs on the U.S. exchange Nasdaq by the Tübingen-based companies CureVac and Immatics. Half of the record sum was contributed by the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine developers BioNTech and CureVac.

Learn more about the trend survey (charts in German)