GoingPublic: How do you estimate the balance between investment in Industrial Biotechnology and return on investment, as compared to other industries?
Struhalla: Unfortunately especially in Europe we cannot look back on a long list of reference investment in the industrial biotechnology from which we could learn. We are very optimistic with regard to our own case, but also believe that some of the trade-sales we have seen in the market place did not fully meet the expectations of the VC investors. One aspect from our point of view is true for all industries: A potentially high reward is usually connected to a high risk. Zimmermann:With the exception of large volume commodity products, the investment amount in industrial biotechnology as compared to red biotechnology is significantly lower and less risky. Nevertheless, the exit potential of red biotech companies is in absolute amounts higher than for industrial biotech companies in case of success, but it has to be shown in future which biotech segment has a better risk-chance-ratio and if the industrial biotech segment is able to show relevant returns. Currently we are optimistic with regard to the industrial biotech segment.
GoingPublic: Is the variety of industrial biotech companies wide enough to make a choice when looking for investment opportunities? Struhalla: From our point of view, the total number of industrial biotechs in the market place, especially in Europe, is rather small. Many ideas for new ventures for sure will not exceed the seed phase. The existing startups and grownups all have their distinct USPs, business models and product pipelines avoiding the overlap rather than increasing the competition. Zimmermann: The main question from an investor’s perspective is not whether or not the variety of industrial biotech companies is large enough. It is more a question of whether or not the individual companies can address an attractive market segment and in case of a successful product/technology development, attract e.g. an industrial buyer. Nevertheless, there are indeed not so many industrial biotechs in the market in Europe and even less exits. Therefore we have to see how the segment will develop in the future.
GoingPublic: Dr Struhalla, Dr Zimmermann, thank you very much for this interesting talk.
Dieser Artikel ist erschienen im Special Industrial Biotechnology Vol.4.