Business Environment

Minimal level of bureaucracy
Medicon Valley constitutes a highly business friendly region, in particular for R&D intensive companies. Efficient and digitalised government procedures allows companies to reduce administrative costs and focus on core activities.

Survey rankings from the internationally acknowledged Institute for Management Development (IMD) show that in Denmark and Sweden bureaucracy is minimal, bribery and corruption is virtually non-existent and the legal environment does not restrain R&D activities. In Medicon Valley, public authorities work with companies, not against them.

Openness towards life science
Denmark and Sweden are among the countries in Europe that allocate the most resources to R&D per capita, and special attention is given to further developing the field of life science.

This is illustrated by the establishment of a EUR 402 million High Technology Fund in Denmark dedicated to the long-term development of key technologies, including biotechnology. The Swedish counterpart is the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research, with life science an important focus area for this EUR 860 million fund.

The high awareness of and interest in the life science industry in Medicon Valley entail a general openness towards the industry, and accordingly life science companies generally encounter a flexible and efficient administration.

Incentives
Medicon Valley offers a range of attractive features for R&D-oriented companies, including:

• Low corporate tax; 28 per cent in Sweden and 25 per cent in Denmark
  
• R&D expenses are normally fully tax deductible. The company can choose to either deduct the full amount the year the expenses has been held alternatively amortisation may be apportioned in equal instalments over a period of the year the expenses has been held and the four following years. Typically the deductible expenses are related to salaries, raw material, and premises. But also expenses related to R&D carried out by other organizations and expenses related to acquiring intellectual property rights are deductible. Capital expenditure related to machinery and equipment used exclusively for research and development purposes, can be fully deducted in the year in which it is acquired.
• Attractive tax schemes for foreign researchers and other key personnel
• Grants to employ PhD students

To learn more about theses incentives, please visit Websites of Copenhagen Capacity or Region Skåne.