Facts and figures on Sweden's number one life science region 2013

Executive summary

This report is a descriptive analysis of the life science industry in the Stockholm-Uppsala region, one of the largest life science clusters in Europe, and defined as the three counties of Uppsala, Stockholm and Sörmland. Based on official sources on limited public companies (2011), the region is home to 586 companies with a total of 20,729 employees. Their combined turnover (national, not regional figure) is 141 billion SEK (~15 billion €). About 13,700 employees (66%) work for companies active in research, development and/or production, while 28% are employed by marketing & sales companies. Six percent of the work force is active in the consulting sector. The workforce is distributed between sub-sectors as follows: Pharmaceutical 11,280 (54%), Medical technology 4,670 (23%), Biotech tools & supply 2,440 (12%), Consulting (CRO and other services) 1,200 (6%) and Diagnostics 1,030 (5%). Other biotechnology accounts for less than 1%.

There are 14 companies (2% of companies) with more than 250 employees who collectively account for over 50% of workforce. 54 companies with 51-250 employees (9% of companies) account for 27%, 144 companies with 11-50 employees accounting for 25% of the companies employ 16% of the workforce and the remaining 374 companies (64% of the company population) with 1-9 employees account for only 6% of the workforce. AstraZeneca with 4,230 employees and GE Healthcare (1,240) are the two largest companies.

Seven of the ten largest companies have a Pharmacia heritage (the different divisions of Pharmacia were acquired or merged with other companies in the late 1990s and early 2000) in one way or another. This heritage is reflected in the different profiles of the three counties Uppsala, Stockholm and Sörmland. The most noticeable differences between the counties include a high proportion of employees in the pharmaceutical sub-sector in Stockholm (62% - of which AstraZeneca contributes 28%) and in Sörmland (94% - almost entirely due to Pfizer’s biopharmaceutical production facility) while the relative contribution from Biotech tools & supply and Diagnostics sub-sectors to the work force in Uppsala is higher than those in the other two counties.

Although the net development of total work force was negative from 2009 to 2011, a number of companies in all sub-sectors grew in number of employees suggesting that at least a proportion of the individuals losing their jobs were employed by another company and that the competence pool stayed in the region to a large extent. Two groups of companies showed consistent growth from 2009 to 2011; namely companies belonging to the company size category 11-50 employees and companies engaged in R&D and/or production activities within the Biotech tools & supply sub-sector.

Reflecting global trends, there has been a continuous decline in employment particularly in the pharmaceutical sub-sector. However, there are a number of factors supporting forecasts of a turnaround for the industry in coming years (from 2012). In addition to the growth seen in a couple of sub-groups (see previous paragraph), these include the strong science base and research infrastructure already existing, a competence pool covering all fields of life science and a productive eco system for innovation. Furthermore, ambitious future plans backed by all stakeholders are underway, including major public-private investments in research funding, research and physical infrastructure totaling over 60 billion SEK (7 billion €). These investments aim at supporting not only existing companies, but also stimulating a new generation and thus ensuring that the region remains a truly global life sciences cluster.