Le mode de financement des entreprises PME de biotechnologie en Wallonie influe-t-il sur leur performance ?

Abstract

“La Wallonie, eldorado des biotechs” (Munster, 2017), “Wallonie, terre d’accueil pour les entreprises biotech” (Renette, 2018), these are the kind of remarks that are frequently mentioned in the media. These appealing sentences enables us to understand that the biotechnology sector has indeed settled in our region. Indeed, this sector still unknown a few years ago has experienced a real boom at the global level. Belgium, meanwhile, has become one of the major players in this field with several successful companies worldwide known. The dynamism present in Wallonia in the field of biotechnology can be explained by the emergence of an ecosystem enabling it to develop in the best conditions. Indeed, this one allows several stakeholders on this territory to collaborate and thus be privileged partners for the companies in this field. Among them, we can find, for instance, quality hospitals and laboratories, numerous research centers, qualified scientists, several renowned universities as well as the government. In addition to this ecosystem, Wallonia seems to be a “fertile ground” for biotechnologies thanks to its numerous financing possibilities. Indeed, this area being rather costly, the question of the method of financing remains paramount. More specifically, in order to develop their products, companies must go through the R&D stage which proves to be long and costly. Moreover, in this area, returns are generally only perceived much later. In fact, at the beginning, companies do not generate any income since the product is not yet marketed. Since this issue seems to be a critical point in the development of biotechnology companies, we will, through this paper, try to understand if the method of financing has an influence on the performance of companies of this field in Wallonia.