The recently held People's Political Festival (Folkemødet) on the Danish island Bornholm was the stage for a meeting of the Danish life science industry late last week.

Under the banner “Danish life science is the path to growth and welfare” a light was shone on the sector’s struggles to attract qualified workers. The summit was hosted by Medicoindustrien (industry association for medtech companies in Denmark), The Danish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Lif), and Medicon Valley Alliance (MVA), which recently published a report outlining the industry’s contribution to the Danish economy.

“Life science makes a huge contribution to the Danish welfare. The challenge lies in how we secure that position in the future, attract the necessary workforce, and maintain the level of our Danish research hubs and attract foreign scientists,” Stig Jørgensen, CEO of MVA, said in his opening remarks.

Might have to look abroad

Søren Bregenholt, corporate vice president R&D External Relations at Novo Nordisk and new Chairman of MVA, is struggling in finding new qualified workers for the Danish diabetes giant.

“Attracting qualified workers is a problem both when it comes to PhDs and postdocs, and when it comes to engineers and process operators,” he said, before being asked whether Novo Nordisk was looking to expand abroad.

“We have no immediate plans to move out of the country, but it’s obvious that when we launch new initiatives, new research and production areas, we will clearly have to look at where these are best located. So far the best place for them has been here in Denmark, with a few exceptions, and we hope it stays that way. But if we are unable to guarantee the necessary workforce to have future production here in Denmark, we might have to consider placing some things abroad,” said Søren Bregenholt, but stressed that it is about two to four highly specialized people Novo Nordisk is lacking.

“It might be a small number, but those are the pivotal components for the motor to run even on a cold Tuesday morning,” he added.

Lower the taxes!

Mads Lundby Hansen, who is chief economist for the independent Danish think tank Cepos, had also made it to the summit. To him, the recipe is simple when it comes to maintaining jobs in Denmark and attracting highly qualified foreign labor.

“Life science represents a very industrious business and the workers employed in the business have a high hourly production and contribute a great deal to the wealth [of the society]. I believe we should go to great lengths to keep companies here, that certainly also applies for life science companies in Denmark. Consequently, it must be appealing for companies to invest in Denmark and work to bring new employees here. My recommendation is to lower corporate taxes,” he said, adding:

“In order to attract the employees we need, the marginal tax rate must be lowered. Many people will point to the fact that we have special rules for scientists, and that’s great and a recognition that taxes matter, but the problem is that it runs for five years and then they hit a veritable Berlin wall of the highest taxation out of any of the OECD countries and a top tax bracket of 56% including charges of 67%.”

The panel debate at the life science summit was also attended by Mette-Marie Harild, VP of Medtronic Northern Europe; Christian Motzfeldt, CEO of the Danish Growth Fund; Ida Sofie Jensen, CEO of Lif; Thomas Bjørnholt, Prorector research & Development, University of Copenhagen; Peter Huntley, CEO of Medicoindustrien; Lars Gaardhøj, Chairman of the Business and Growth Committee, Capital Region of Denmark; and Frida Frost, Chairman of the Danish Society of Engineers (IDA).

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- translated by Martin Havtorn Petersen

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