The Lundbeck Foundation Annual Report for 2023

Today, the Lundbeck Foundation announced its annual report for 2023 showing growth in Group revenue and operating profit in line with expectations.  Furthermore, several additions were made to the Group’s strategic ownerships and biotech portfolio.

The Foundation launched several new initiatives to strengthen neuroscience research at Danish universities and to bring new scientific discoveries to the lives of patients and their relatives while continuing to take part in further building and developing Denmark’s life-science ecosystem.

Read the Lundbeck Foundation Annual Report 2023

Results in 2023

• The Lundbeck Foundation delivered Group profit of DKK 6,273m, which was up from last year’s profit of DKK 1,211m. The improvement from last year reflected a significantly higher contribution from the Foundation’s investment activities.
• Group operating profit grew to DKK 3,790m (DKK 3,427m), which was in line with expectations and driven primarily by Lundbeck and ALK, which saw increases of DKK 343m and DKK 196m, respectively.
• Lundbeck and ALK reported revenue growth of 9% and 7%, respectively, while Falck saw 4% organic growth. Divestments and foreign exchange effects impacted Falck’s reported revenue negatively by 4.9%. Total Group revenue ended at DKK 36,659m (DKK 35,426m), which was an increase of 3% on 2022.
• The Foundation’s investment activities generated a return of DKK 3,570m (DKK 1,995m), primarily driven by listed equities, which grew by DKK 2,247m or 21%, and the BioCapital portfolio which delivered a net return of DKK 772m.

• The Foundation’s total grants amounted to DKK 592m, which was above the stated annual commitment of DKK 500m. 82% of total grants (DKK 485m) was committed to neuroscience.

CEO statement

2023 was a good year for the Foundation with robust sales growth, strong operational and financial performance, and new investments. We reached our strategic milestone of five to eight strategic ownerships and grew our grants to Danish neuroscience. 2023 also marked a significant increase in our public voice in support of Denmark’s life-science ecosystem.

Highlights of the year

• The Foundation acquired a 34% ownership stake in Ellab, an international MedTech offering high-end validation and monitoring solutions to life-science customers. The ownership of Ellab is shared with Novo Holdings and marks an important milestone in the Foundation’s 2030 strategy of being a significant long-term owner of five to eight Danish healthcare companies.

• The Group welcomed two new CEOs in its strategic ownership portfolio; In Lundbeck, Charl van Zyl took over as CEO from Deborah Dunsire in September and in ALK, Peter Halling took over as CEO from Carsten Hellmann in November.

• Lundbeckfonden BioCapital invested in two new Danish biotech companies, Notify Therapeutics and Dania Therapeutics. The biotech portfolio now holds 20 companies, which despite a sustained downturn in the biotech market continued to perform well, with several successful private as well as public fundraisings and many positive clinical updates.
• Having pioneered Frontier Grants in 2022 to support the transition of basic research projects to attractive biotech prospects, the Foundation awarded four Frontier Grants in 2023 to scientists working on innovative new treatments related to CGRP (migraine), Huntington’s disease, liver fibrosis and cardiac diseases.
• Together with six other science-funding Danish foundations, the Foundation entered into an agreement, which defines a cost distribution mechanism between the six foundations and Denmark’s universities. The agreement closes a long-standing discussion on sharing of costs related to foundation funded research at Danish universities.
• The Foundation’s open knowledge platform Neurotorium, launched in 2022, continued to expand and was, after only two years of operation, accessed by more than 180,000 users from 181 countries in 2023.
• The Foundation focused its public voice on the international talent agenda and the need for proactive efforts to recruit, develop and retain life-science talents. Together with the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the Foundation launched a whitepaper targeting decision-makers. The paper listed concrete options on how to ease the recruitment and retention of international talents, which are critically for Denmark’s universities and the life-science industry.

Change to the Board of Directors

The Lundbeck Foundation also announced that Peter Schütze, Deputy Chair of the Board of the Lundbeck Foundation and portfolio board member since 2015, steps down in accordance with the Foundation’s statutes. The General Meeting elected Søren Skou as new Deputy Chair of the Board.

Skou was CEO of A.P. Moller-Maersk until 2022 and is senior advisor for Global Infrastructure Partners and Chair in two companies, VTG GmbH and Skyborn Renewables GmBH. He is also Chair of HES Intl. BV, Bygma, The Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, Controlant, Vice Chair of Nokia and board member in C.W. Obel. Skou is a graduate in Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School and holds an MBA (Honours) from IMD Business School, Switzerland.

 

About the Lundbeck Foundation

The Lundbeck Foundation is an enterprise foundation encompassing a comprehensive range of enterprise and philanthropic activities – all united by its strong purpose; Bringing Discoveries to Lives. The Foundation is the long-term and engaged owner of several international healthcare companies – Lundbeck, Falck, ALK, Ferrosan Medical Devices og Ellab – and an active investor in business, science and people through its commercial investments in the financial markets; in biotech companies based on Danish research and through philanthropic grants to science talents and programmes in Danish universities. The Foundation’s philanthropic grants amount to more than DKK 500m annually primarily focusing on the brain – including the world’s largest personal prize for neuroscience: The Brain Prize.