Are small life science companies moved abroad?

Is it true that small life science companies are acquired and moved abroad? Recently it has been an often-expressed opinion that small companies move abroad due to unfavorable conditions such as the lack of money or other resources.

Stockholm Science City decided to examine if this is a real fact or a myth. We went through all 740 life science companies in the Stockholm-Uppsala region, registered in 2009, and analyzed those not registered in 2019. This is the result:

Of the 232 companies that have disappeared:

21 companies could not be traced
58 companies have undergone an internal move within the group
141 have undergone liquidation
12 companies in total have been moved externally

Of the 12 companies that have been moved externally:

2 have been acquired and left the country. 2 out of 740 companies!
2 foreign companies merged with other foreign companies
2 Swedish companies were bought by a foreign company, but the research remains here
3 Swedish companies were bought by other Swedish companies
1 company has been bought back by a Swedish actor

If you wish to learn more about the life science sector in Stockholm and Uppsala and how it has evolved since 2009, please read our short report released earlier this year >

If you want to know more about the analysis, contact Ylva Williams ylva.williams@ssci.se.