The COVID effect is decreasing and yet the German Biotech-Sector: While the two COVID19 vaccine developers Biontech and Curevac collected more than half of the capital raised in the entire biotech sector in 2020, last year it was only 18 percent, according to a study by Management consultancy EY. Alexander Nuyken, EY Partner and Head of Life Sciences Strategy & Transactions in the EMEIA region, says:
"Unlike previous years, financing is not determined solely by individual events. This is a clear sign of the stability of the industry and the market's confidence in the companies."
“Trend away from drip feeding”
The individual financing types developed very differently: Follow-on financings brought in €874 million, a decrease of 43 percent compared to 2020. Venture capital financing fell by 15 percent to €752 million, and convertible bonds plummeted by a full 71 percent to €139 million. In contrast, a total of four IPOs brought in €667 million—52 percent more than the previous year.
“In early-stage financing, there is a clear trend away from so-called ‘drip feeding’,”
says Nuyken:
“Companies receive the necessary financial resources from the outset to enable them to make the necessary progress in their development.”
In addition to revenues from IPOs, revenues and research and development spending at listed biotechs also rose sharply compared to 2020: revenues climbed by an impressive 551 percent, and R&D spending by 89 percent.
