2.1 Dedicated Biotechnology Companies Structure and Employees
The biotechnology sector in Austria has been thriving significantly in recent years. Most of the key economic figures such as company and employee numbers and turnover clearly improved from 2010 until 2014 (see table below), demonstrating a growing maturity of the sector. In 2014, there were 116 Austrian companies occupied wholly, or for the most part, with biotechnology. This is a marked increase (+22%) compared to 2012, when 95 companies were counted as ‘dedicated’ biotechnology companies according to the definition (see page 47) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The sector’s growth is even more impressive if one considers the status back in 2010, when only 77 dedicated biotech companies existed in Austria.
Good start-up environment Of the 21 dedicated biotechnology companies included as newcomers in this survey, ten were set up in 2013 and ten in 2014. In addition, there were two companies that became insolvent in 2014. A couple of additional firms became operational during the last two years, even if their official founding year was earlier, demonstrating the high dynamics within the sector over the last few years. Most of the Austrian biotechnology companies are still young – the average dedicated biotech company is just eight years old. For comparison: only 15 companies were set up before 2000.This underlines the good environment for start-ups in the country. An upswing is also recorded with regard to the number of employees. From 2010 to 2014, employee numbers grew along with the number of companies. In 2014, a total of 1,660 employees worked for dedicated biotechnology companies (2012: 1,565 employees; 2010: 1,470 employees). A 56% share of these employees were female, a value
0.9% 0.9% 4.3% 61.2%
32.8%
Number of employees > 249 100 – 249 50 – 99 10 – 49 < 10
Figure 1: Size structure of dedicated biotechnology companies in 2014
that has remained constant over the last years. In terms of company size, most of the Austrian biotech firms are small. In fact, all but one of the 116 dedicated biotech companies included in this survey fall into the EU-defined category of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), i.e. having less than 250 employees. As is characteristic for young and dynamically growing industries, very small companies shape the field. More than half of the Austrian dedicated biotechnology companies (71 firms; 61.2%) have fewer than ten employees on their books. The second major group of companies employ between ten and forty-nine people (38 firms; 32.8%). Larger dedicated biotechnology companies are the exception in the Austrian biotechnology sector. To date, seven firms have reached this size. Five companies employ a staff of 50 to 99, one company has 100 to 249 employees on its payroll. Only one company employs more than 249 staff. If the company exceeds this threshold, it is considered a large-scale enterprise according to EU definitions.
2010
2012
2014
Number of dedicated biotechnology companies
77
95
116
Number of employees in dedicated biotechnology companies
1,470
1,565
1,660
Turnover of dedicated biotechnology companies
EUR 161 m
EUR 187.2 m
EUR 198 m
R&D expenditure of dedicated biotechnology companies
EUR 173 m
EUR 131.8 m
EUR 143.6 m
Financing of dedicated biotechnology companies
EUR 79 m
EUR 98.1 m
EUR 86.8 m
Table 3: Key figures of the dedicated biotechnology companies 2010, 2012, 2014
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