Biotech companies in the US, Europe and Canada raised $25.0 billion in funding last year, a 7.8% increase. However, 83% of this funding went to only 20% of the companies, and financings accounted for 45% of funding, indicating that large, mature companies benefited the most. Less venture capital funding was available up front and was more likely to be based on milestones. Revenues (adjusted for the acquisition of Genentech) for the 622 publicly held biotech companies in the US, Europe, Canada and Australia increased 8.0%, the same rate as in 2009, to $84.6 billion. Total R&D spending grew 2.2% to $22.8 billion, compared with a 21% decline in 2009. The number of public and private US biotech companies grew 1.4% to 1,726. R&D spending by the public US “commercial leaders” (the 13 companies with 2009 revenues of more than $500 million) grew 7.3% to $8.8 billion, versus a 1.1% decline for other public US biotech firms to $8.7 billion. In Europe, the number of private and public biotech firms fell 0.5% to 1,834. Total R&D expenditures by public European biotech companies fell 5.3% to €3.4 billion ($4.5 billion).

Source: Ernst & Young