Thriving biotechnology industry in Finland

Finland's homogeneous population makes it a great place to carry out clinical trials, and a thriving biotech sector has sprung up to take advantage of this.

There are currently around 140 biotech companies of all types around the country, with a little over half of these being in the Helsinki region, says Riika Paasikivi, programme director at the Helsinki Business and Science Park. The Turku area is also important for pharma biotech.

The biotech boom has been helped by the country's funding situation. Finland's National Technology Agency, Tekes, has a Drug 2000 programme, and also the NeoBio programme for diagnostics. It provides government funding for r&d projects in industry, universities and research industries, and many Finnish biotech companies have received substantial help from the agency.

Biotech funding is also provided by Sitra, the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development. It is described by its director of life sciences, Pauli Marttila, as being somewhere between a national agency and a fund. 'It was initially set up in 1967 by the Bank of Finland, but it is independent and monitored by parliament,' says Marttila.

It has also played a vital role in building up the biotech sector, but it is not now funding new companies, concentrating instead on other areas and its existing portfolio companies. It is starting a new fund where it will place half its current portfolio holding, with some Sitra funding, and new capital that will be raised.