COVID-19 - Company Survey

How much do the Bavarian biotechs feel the effects of the coronavirus pandemic?

What challenges do Bavarian biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have to master in the pandemic and are there opportunities arising from the increased attention from politics and society? What effects are they feeling and what measures have they taken? What support does the industry need and how many companies are actually dealing with the various pandemic issues?

As the management organization for the Bavarian biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, Bio^M wants to provide the best possible support in overcoming the current challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
For example, Bio^M was instrumental in initiating the Bavarian funding program to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, "BayTherapie2020."

As in the spring of 2020, we also conducted a company survey on the coronavirus pandemic this year. This snapshot of the situation within the Bavarian life science community allowed us to better assess the situation and capture developments since the 2020 survey.
For example, companies' concerns have fortunately eased noticeably, but supply bottlenecks have become a clear problem.

In 2020, 94 participants at executive level took part in the survey; in 2021, we received 62 responses.

Key messages

• 79% of respondents are not concerned, 21% of respondents are concerned (of which 5% are extremely or very concerned) about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their company. A decline in concern is evident here; in 2020, 55% of respondents had still indicated that they were concerned.
• 38% of the companies surveyed reported an increase in sales, 33% a decrease in sales, and for 12% the decrease in sales was very significant or threatened their existence.
• 15% of the companies have applied for financial support from the federal government or the Free State of Bavaria or plan to do so; all applications were approved.
• 67% of the companies offer products or services that can be used to combat COVID-19.
• 15% of the respondents are looking for cooperation partners to develop COVID-19 relevant products/services.
  The more than 110 entries on the Bio^M COVID-19 platform impressively demonstrate the willingness of companies in the Bavarian biotechnology cluster to cooperate.
• Supply bottlenecks, organization of workflows as well as home office solutions, organization of childcare and hygiene measures in the company were perceived by the companies as the greatest challenges.
  The problems caused by supply bottlenecks have increased significantly compared to the 2020 survey; while 33% of respondents named this as a challenge in 2020, it is already 57% in 2021.

The full analyses can be found at:

Bio^M COVID-19 Company Survey 2020

Bio^M COVID-10 Company Survey 2021

The insights gained from this survey help the Bio^M cluster management to tailor offers to demand; they have also been shared with political stakeholders at federal and state level as an important basis for decision-making.
The Bio^M team continues to address individual questions directly concerning how to cope with the special challenges posed by the pandemic.