European Biotechnology on the World Stage

European biotechnology on the world stage plays a major role as an innovator in new startups and in translating Europe’s continuing strength in research into a commercial context. Since the explosion of commercial biotechnology in Europe in the 1990s, the sector has strived to follow in the footsteps of the US in creating valuable, fast growing companies that feed the ever-hungry pipelines of the productstarved pharma companies.

However, Europe has not managed to recreate the American model on this side of the Atlantic, and holds a different place in the biotechnology world. Whilst it is true that Europe creates a comparable number of new biotechs each year to the US, few achieve the size and maturity of US companies. This may be for a number of reasons.

European Late Starter?

The boom in the biotech sector in Europe occurred after the US and many companies failed to reach critical mass and maturity before the funding crash of 2001. The era of ‘if it moves, invest in it’ is unlikely to be seen again, and only those companies that achieved a solid pipeline were able to generate significant funding.