By Sougato Das, President and COO, LSN
RESI Europe is one of the major pieces in the puzzle of how to stimulate biotech and life science investing in Europe. In addition to the largest investor partnering conference coming to Lisbon on March 23, the European Life Sciences Coalition (ELSC), a new alliance of major venture capital firms advocating for increased funding and policy support for Europe’s biotech sector, has launched. The coalition includes leading investors such as Novo Holdings, Sofinnova Partners, Forbion, and Omega Funds, representing a combined €24 billion in life sciences assets and involvement in more than 1,400 companies. It launched in association with Invest Europe, whose 650+ members manage 60% of European private equity and venture capital, totaling €1.25 trillion in assets. Alongside major initiatives like the European Innovation Council, whose funded companies enjoy 50% reimbursement for attending RESI Europe, the ELSC hopes to bring new energy to the entrepreneurial sector of life sciences.
Despite Europe’s strong pharmaceutical presence—five of the world’s top 10 pharma companies by revenue are European—and the industry supporting 29 million EU jobs, the region struggles to scale and retain biotech and life science innovation. The coalition highlights several challenges:
- Fragmented capital markets
- Declining numbers of specialized VC firms
- Regulatory hurdles
- Limited access to growth capital
Europe accounts for only 7% of global venture capital, compared to 63% for the U.S. and 14% for China. Fortunately, events like RESI Europe create a forum where nearly all of the firms representing the 7% are available for partnering, acting as a facilitator to stimulate European life science investment. The dire need for this is underscored by the fact that nearly all EU-based biotechs that went public last year chose to list outside the EU, highlighting concerns about capital flight.
ELSC members joined the coalition to help reverse these trends, emphasizing the need for sustained funding from both public and private sources across all stages of life sciences development. Industry leaders argue that Europe must increase investment in innovative medicines and treatments, and create supportive policy frameworks and forums, like RESI Europe, or risk losing access to cutting-edge therapies. The ELSC aims to work with policymakers and leverage Invest Europe’s network to strengthen Europe’s ability to fund and scale biotech innovation domestically.
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