Swiss biotech CEO follow-up survey

To strengthen the Swiss biotech industry’s arguments and negotiation position towards the State Secretary for Economic Affairs (SECO), please participate in this survey for the Swiss biotech industry for actual data and your personal assessment of the current situation.

This will help us to provide a credible overview of the situation to the federal and cantonal authorities. You can participate anonymously. If you wish to do so, do not provide your name, e-mail address or company name.

The background

We are aware that the majority of the Swiss biotech companies are confronted with significant delays in their R&D projects due to the Covid pandemic. Consequently, many companies have reached out to the Swiss Biotech Association and federal and regional authorities to emphasize the need for emergency loans to gain time to complete planned financing rounds and finalize the delayed R&D projects.

While a number of companies have been able to successfully close financing rounds in Q2, 2020 (mostly based on data generated prior to the pandemic), we see clear signs that in Q3 and Q4 the effects of the pandemic will become more apparent. Hence, we continue to emphasize that R&D companies without significant revenues remain cut off from emergency loans in Switzerland. While the joint federal/cantonal program for startups might provide a solution in some cases, the initial observations point to a slow approval process, and many companies do not qualify for fundamental reasons.

So far, the SECO has not been supportive of extending the emergency loan to R&D companies without revenues.

The authorities’ arguments:

Q1 and Q2 data suggest that the financing of Swiss biotech companies continues to work well
there is no interest to develop sector-specific solutions for capacity reasons, but also to avoid that some industries benefit more than others
it is not the task of the government to bail out private investors/VCs

We recognize that these arguments do not take into account the financing environment in Q3/Q4, which is likely going to be more challenging, as more companies enter into re-financing discussions without the expected results at hand due to the pandemic.

Also, the issue is not specific to biotech, as other R&D-oriented industries face the same challenges. And last but not least, the companies will not wait until they are running out of cash, but rather take measures to reduce the burn rate, which tend to weaken the innovation power and delay projects even further.

Please reply no later than August 28, 2020

If you wish to participate anonymously in the survey, do not provide your name, e-mail address or company name

This survey ONLY works on a desktop browser (no mobile usage possible, sorry)

To input multiple answers, press and hold “Ctrl” (PC) or “Command” (Mac), and select the suiting answers by clicking with your mouse

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Company

Name

Did you plan to close a financing round? (multiple answers possible)

What is the total amount you intend to raise?

Do you still see a chance to close the round(s) as planned?

By when do you think the liquidity reserves of your company will be exhausted?

Do you have any comments related to your financing need and current situation?

Did you (or do you still) experience significant delays in running one or more of the following activities (multiple answers possible)

If you selected "other" as delayed activity, please outline

Expected delay for internal pre-clinical experiments

Expected delay for external collaborations with CROs

Expected delay for external collaborations with academic partners

Expected delay for clinical trials

Other expected delays, not including the above

Did your company benefit from (multiple answers possible)

Do you benefit from cost reductions due to other measures (e.g. cantonal solutions) or negotiations?

Did you take (or do you plan to take) measures to reduce the burn rate (multiple answers possible)

Do you experience (other than stated above) negative impacts due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and how do you respond to these challenges?

Do you require specific support from the Swiss Biotech Association? What topics should we address with the federal or local authorities?