Over 100 Nordic companies present at BIO2022 as region scores heavily in Nature Biotechnology's World Review

Sweden, Denmark and Finland all in top 10, while Norway and Iceland also receive high marks

The latest Nature Biotechnology World Review shows the growing strength of the Nordics as a leading life sciences hub. Judged on five pillars, Sweden ranks second to winner Switzerland, Denmark is fifth, and Finland ninth.

Norway lies just outside the top 10 at 13^th place. Meanwhile, Iceland ranked highest in the sub-category of nations with no headquartered biotech companies listed on stock exchanges.

Now as travel restrictions lift, over 100 Nordic companies will be heading to San Diego on June 13-16 for the world’s premier life sciences event – the BIO International Convention 2022. The companies will represent the region’s traditional strengths in cancer immunotherapy, CNS, genomics and protein science, along with new areas such as cell and gene therapy, microbiomics and precision medicine.

“We are delighted that Sweden and our Nordic neighbours rank so highly in this latest Nature Biotechnology World Review,” says Helena Strigard, CEO of SwedenBIO, the life science industry association.

“The timing could not be better as we for the first time in many years have a joint Nordics Pavilion at BIO with over 100 companies represented. We are also seeing strengthened links with the US between the Nordics in general and Sweden in particular, with increasing collaboration between research centers, multicenter clinical trials, and direct investment. For example, our own flagship event in September – Nordic Life Science Days – will have its strongest ever US participation,” Strigard adds.

The World Review rankings are based on five pillars of data. The Public Biotech Company pillar incorporates data from Nature Biotechnology’s annual survey of publicly listed biotech companies. The Investment pillar includes data on R&D spending as a proportion of GDP, venture capital availability, and investment. The Research and Translation pillar relates to data on researchers and technicians per million population, scientific publication outputs, and patent filings. The Education pillar deals with the development of the human resources needed to enact innovation. The Fundamentals pillar describes the wider national environment in which the innovation takes place.

By normalizing data from each of these five pillars and combining them, the authors assign a cumulative score to 40 countries from across the globe, divided in two categories consisting of those that have headquartered biotech companies listed on stock exchanges and those that don’t. The US ranked third after Switzerland and Sweden in the first category.

Meet the Nordic actors at the Nordics Pavilion at BIO International Convention 2022 – No. 3317.

The Nature World Review can be downloaded here.