With investments of around 674 million euros, 2017 was a new record year for the German biotechnology industry. The majority of companies looks confidently into the new year. This is the result of a company survey carried out by the German Biotechnology Industry Association (BIO Deutschland) in cooperation with the biotech news magazine |transkript.

According to the survey, the mood in the biotech sector is predominantly positive: the entrepreneurs asked at the end of 2017 are committed to new investments in R&D and personnel. Half of them assess the current business situation as good and expect a further improvement in 2018. This shows that the overall situation is good, however, at a slightly lower level than in the previous year.

The financing level of German biotechnology companies reached a record high in 2017. At 674 million euros, the figure is slightly above the previous all-time high of 656 million euros from 2010 and a third above the previous year's figure (2016: 505 million euros). A breakdown of the various sources of financing shows an increase across the board. A double-digit growth rate of 36% was registered for the value of listed companies - 352 million euros compared to 258 million euros in 2016. The successful IPO of Inflarx from Jena on the US tech exchange Nasdaq has flushed another 86 million euros into the coffers.  236 million came from venture capitalists, nine percent more than in the previous year.

Germany is thus contributing to the positive development in the European capital market. After a weaker year in 2016, there is once again a clear upswing. According to a recent study by BIOCOM AG, European biotech companies raised a total of 5.09 billion euros on the stock exchange in 2017, 54% more than in 2016 (3.3 billion euros). This means that the industry can almost match the record figures of 2015 (6.29 billion euros).

More information on the industry survey can be found on the BIO Germany homepage.