Focusing on biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry

Vienna is the hub of the Austrian biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. 349 companies are active in Vienna, employing almost 23,000 people and generating around 18.4 billion euros in revenue per year. This represents two-thirds (66%) of Austria’s biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, 54% of the sector’s workforce and 63% of its total turnover.

From 2020 to 2023 Vienna’s biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry experienced a significant expansion: 7% more companies, the total number of employees ,rose by 8%, and revenue increased by 30%. 55 companies were newly founded in the reporting period. Most of them – 41 in total – are engaged in research, development, manufacturing, while the remaining 14 new companies operate in supply, services or sales.

All top 20 global players in the sector operate a presence in Vienna. Many have a sales unit and a clinical research unit in the city that prepares and monitors clinical trials, for example MSD, Novartis and Pfizer.

For 2023, 174 biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with a focus on research, development and manufacturing have been recorded in Vienna. Together, these enterprises have generated a big share of the sector’s revenue (8.5 billion euros) and employed almost two-thirds of the workforce (14,692 employees). Several big players whose staff represents a big share of the sector’s total employees are currently upgrading their R&D and manufacturing facilities in Vienna with Boehringer Ingelheim, Octapharma and Takeda carrying out the largest investments.

The number of ‘dedicated biotech’ businesses in Vienna that meet the OECD definition has continued to rise over the years, growing to 119 in 2023. 30% have been founded from 2021 to 2023. The majority of Vienna’s dedicated biotechnology companies focuses on medical topics with a large share addressing unmet medical needs in cancer, infectious disease, and diseases of the blood and the immune system. Besides, companies focusing on bioeconomy-related and other topics are also available in Vienna. The company listings in the Vienna Life Science Report provide an overview and make it easier to identify potential partners. Most of Vienna’s dedicated biotechnology companies are rather small and young: Over 71% have fewer than ten employees, and only a handful have 50 or more. More than half of the companies were five years old or younger by the end of 2023.

From 2021 to 2024 substantial equity investments and financing milestones have been announced by Vienna’s innovative life sciences companies. Deals predominantly were early-stage financing rounds and milestone payments by partners from the pharmaceutical industry, in addition to a small number of stock market offerings at scale-ups. Annual investment volumes varied between years but were in the 3-digit-million range annually – just as in the previous reporting period. Nevertheless, biotechnology companies face a challenging financing environment for mid- to late-stage development processes, especially when it comes to developing drugs from discovery through to market approval. a:head.bio, aitiologic, aTENSION.life, invIOs, YGION Biomedical and Zytoprotec are among the biotechnology companies in Vienna that successfully attracted private equity investment over the past few years.

Viennese life sciences companies are successfully establishing strategic partnerships, including licensing agreements and M&A activities. From 2021 to 2024, about 100 such agreements have been communicated in public. For most of them, financial details were not disclosed and entirely confidential deals are not included in this figure. Partnerships are often linked to platform technologies that allow generating new products and services based on a core technological solution, to joint development programs, country-specific licensing opportunities and distribution partnerships. Agreements involving companies such as Biomay, HeartBeat.bio, Myllia, Proxygen, QUANTRO Therapeutics, and Valneva are listed in the Vienna Life Science Report.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector requires the continuous support of professional suppliers, innovative service providers and strategic sales and distribution units. In Vienna, 175 sales, supply and service companies together employed 8,296 people in 2023 and reported a turnover of 9.8 billion euros.

More examples, figures, tables and lists are provided in the Vienna Life Science Report.

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