• Biotechnology
• Biopharmaceuticals
• Medical Technology
• Healthcare Services
• Specialty Pharmaceuticals
• Specialty Chemicals

Biotechnology
Companies in the biotechnology sector use molecular biology and related technologies/processes to discover and develop products for life science applications.
Innovative technologies combined with unique human expertise in life sciences are the essential assets of companies in this sector. Typically, these companies are backed by venture capital and private investors. In 2007 more than 450 Mio€ have been invested in German biotech companies, thereof 320 Mio€ in private and venture capital.
Strategic partnerships with large pharmaceuticals companies add financial support or pharmaceutical expertise to their technologies and products. They also act as service providers offering their technologies to other biotech or pharmaceutical companies.

Private and public capital markets are the major sources of finance for the growth and maturation of biotechnology companies.

Biopharmaceuticals
Companies in the biopharmaceutical sector deploy biotechnological processes to develop drugs for defined disease indications.
Players in this sector are characterised by their in-depth knowledge of diseases and disease-causing mechanisms upon which innovative treatments are developed. Biopharmaceutical companies usually have high cash-burn rates as products race through a costly clinical development process. Companies in this sector prefer to enter into strategic partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies at late stages in the product development process.

The Biopharmaceutical sector is dominated by players from the US, followed by the UK and other European countries. Today, six drug candidates from German biopharmaceutical companies are already in registration and 17 candidates reached clinical phase 3 in 2007.
Growth in this sector is expected to be higher than the average 5 to 7% annual growth rate for the pharmaceutical industry.

Medical Technology
Besides the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industry, the medical technology industry represents one of the most important segments of the healthcare universe. Companies in the medical technology sector design and produce devices for medical and related applications.

Players in this sector are innovative engineers and their products/devices assist or replace biological functions normally performed by healthy organs in patients. Compared to the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industry, the product development cycle is relatively short and does not have to fulfil as strict and extensive registration requirements.

The largest market by far for medical technology products is the US, followed by Japan and Germany. In recent years, this sector has proven to be a fast growing industry with annual growth rates between 8 to 10%. The growth of this sector is nearly independent from economic cycles.

Healthcare Services
The healthcare services sector comprises hospitals, acute care facilities, assisted living facilities or rehabilitation centres. This sector is usually regulated by government authorities and characterised by the involvement of a large number of non-profit organisations or organisations run by public utilities. As a result of budgetary restrictions to the healthcare providers leading to an increase in cost pressure on the one side and the need for substantial investments in infrastructure and technologies on the other, privatisation of public facilities and consolidation of this fragmented market will accelerate.

In Germany alone, the healthcare services market has an estimated volume of approx. €80bn and is expected to grow at an annual rate of 2 to 3% over the next years.

Specialty Pharmaceuticals
Compared to large pharmaceutical companies, specialty pharma focus on certain development stages in clinical development processes for specific therapeutic applications.

These companies in-license or acquire products in their product pipeline, in most cases, late-stage products or already market products from large pharmaceutical companies. Their products are developed for niche markets or for patients with rare diseases. In 2005, the specialty pharmaceutical market was estimated at US$ 52 million.

Specialty Chemicals
Companies in the area of special chemicals develops, manufactures and sells raw materials or key intermediates, ingredients for different industrial companies, which provides products for private end users, for instances polymers, herbicides, insecticides, water treatment chemicals or cleaning chemicals. Their products are sold to multiple industries sectors. These companies often give additional synthesis services for different industry sectors.


[Healthcare & Life Sciences Transactions]