Economic situation

From a purely institutional perspective, a range of mechanisms and facilities is available for the financial support of biotech activities. Most of these institutions are financed in one way or another by the state or are partially supported by public funds. Among the most important public organisations are the National Authority for Industrial and Technological Development (NUTEK), ALMI Business Partner (ALMI), the Swedish Fund for Industrial Development, known as Industriefonden, and the "Innovation Bridge" Innovationsbron. "Teknikbrostiftelsen" (TBS) was created in the mid 90s to provide support to universities in their commercialisation activities. This was itself financially supported by the national organisations Industriefonden, NUTEK and VINNOVA before it was merged in March 2005 from several organizations in the Skane region into an overall controlling body under the name Innovationsbron. This was made possible by the 2004 state-initiated program, the Neergaard Agenda ("Improved Financing for the Commercialisation of Innovations"), which is intended to revive and strengthen the commercialisation of innovative Swedish products after a serious lack of seed and venture capital was highlighted in 2001.

NUTEK promotes the transfer of technology of SMEs working on innovative projects with subsidies for the further elaboration of concepts, low-interest loans and cost-reduction programs. A further mechanism supporting researchers during the implementation of inventions in the initial phases is the public body and listed company ALMI, which cooperates closely with Innovationsbron. Over a period of ten years, from 2005 to 2015, a total of two billion SEK, i.e. 200 million Swedish crowns (SEK) from the VINNOVA program, Industriefonden and the Innovationsbron will be distributed. Industrifonden cooperates with private investors and supports small innovative enterprises with venture capital programs. Alongside, a Swedish variant of the British Business Expansion Scheme has been introduced, which provides tax concessions for investments in small, non-listed companies.

There has been a lack of seed capital for some time in Sweden (and since 2001 especially). The VINNOVA "Concept Testing Program", which has 700,000 euros in its coffers, was created to address this problem. VINNOVA supports biotech companies during the proof of concept testing phases and is also intended to give enterprises the opportunity to extend their future product portfolio. The national incubator program was brought into life in 2003 in order to promote the creation of incubators, including the Innovationsbron already mentioned above as well as new companies (through the supply of seed capital). Another important initiative is the VentureCup competition, whereby winners receive start-up financing and consultation. Through the "Affaersskolan" program, university graduates and researchers in Sweden can receive information and consultation about the founding of a company and its subsequent management.

In January 2007, a position paper from SwedenBio on the progress of the implementation of the Neergaard Agenda criticised the continuing lack or small size of financing sources. In particular, the structure of the "KickStart Sweden" for risk capital financing in the Life Science area is judged as having been a failure. This was justified with a lack of business angels in Sweden and the fact that investors would rather enter with higher sums at advanced development phases than begin with a high-risk relationship. Particularly alarming for the innovation location Sweden was the decision of the world’s largest manufacturer of embryonic stem cell lines, the Swedish company Cellartis, to shift their production location to Scotland for tax reasons. SwedenBio is therefore demanding tax incentives for research-intensive companies - similar to France’s Young Innovative Company status.