Second place is rarely good enough in this industry. If the attainment of critical mass is to be one of European biotech's primary goals in the coming years, the report also asserts that it needs fertile soil in which to grow. The strong market for European biotech stocks opened the window for an unprecedented funding boom in the industry with over 6.5 billion raised in 2000. Up from 1.1 billion the previous year, this is a record for the industry. The average amount raised by these companies at IPO set a record at nearly 80 million, almost double the previous best.
European biotechs are more financially secure than ever before.
Europe's public biotechs now have 278 products at various stages of the drug development pipeline. The UK still dominates the European sector The UK has over three times the number of public biotech companies than any other European country - 48 of Europe's 105 public companies are British. 128 of the 278 products in the pipelines of Europe's public companies derive from UK biotechs. Far more significant than absolute company numbers, is the fact that German companies formed only relatively recently, such as LION Bioscience and Evotec , are now moving into the top tier of European biotech and starting to acquire US and UK companies. This raises questions as to whether the UK needs to look seriously at the German government's biotech funding scheme.