Do you also in your mind have a priority list of destinations to visit once the world normalises and you can get back on a plane? If so, and if you are a Venture Capitalist, you may also be wondering which countries have been creating most Life Science M&A prospects in the past 10 years.
The figure below distributes EUR >50M M&A’s of drug development companies in the past 10 years according to the countries of HQ origin. The figure illustrates that the UK is likely the most vibrant Life Science Cluster in Europe, with several M&A’s far exceeding the rest of Europe.
However, ranking M&A’s relative to population size reveals the impressive contribution to the industry made by the small populations of Denmark and Switzerland. If you want to target high talent densities, those countries should be on your destination list. This talent is further highlighted when normalizing relative to the number of patents filed in the same countries.
The number of M&A’s relative to patents filed also indicates a surprisingly low exploitation of IP in Germany and France. If you have the talent and are looking for a rough jewel, then maybe those countries should be on your list!?
What do you think? Is geography relevant when searching for new opportunities?