Introduction and Demographics

COVID-19 Response and Impacts on the Life Sciences

With the rapid spread of COVID-19 over the first four months of 2020, the world’s attention has turned to the life sciences community in search of testing, vaccination and treatment of the virus. At the same time, the associated lockdowns are having huge impacts on the supply chain and working life of those working in the industry.

Informa Connect Life Sciences and BioProcess International magazine conducted a huge survey (14-22 April 2020) of life sciences professionals from the pharma, biotech, medical device and regulatory industries around the world on the coronavirus. The results of the 629 responses, presented in this report, reveal insights into how the global life sciences community is responding to the crisis, and the impacts it is having on the different industries.

In this section we look at the demographics of the respondents. Use the Contents menu in the top left to jump to another section or download this report as a PDF.

Key Insights

47% of respondents' organizations are working on the development of diagnostics, vaccination or treatment of COVID-19.
80% think that a vaccine will be approved in their country within 18 months, and 62% think treatment will be available within 12 months.
Antibody therapeutics are seen as the most promising approach for treatment (25% of respondents). Just 9% think that treatment will come exclusively from newly developed drugs.
87% have had their supply chain impacted in some way by COVID-19.
68% are currently working from home full time, with just 13% still working at the office/lab full time.