Swedish universities are not good enough at commercialising research results within the life sciences, Peter Strömbäck, director of Innovationsbron AB which offers early stage venture and business support, has warned.
Writing in Ny Teknik, a technology and IT newspaper, on 30 December he said that over 95 per cent of medical and diagnostics projects fail to be developed into commercial products.
Strömbäck said that despite 8.6 billion kroner (€973m) being invested annually in life sciences by universities in the Stockholm-Uppsala region alone, only 1 per cent of this funding is used for commercialisation purposes.
The lack of funding means research results cannot be sufficiently verified, which keeps private investors away, he said. Universities must spend more money on securing that products are “mature”, he added.