Overview
- The European Life Sciences Coalition launched in Brussels with support from Invest Europe to advocate for market and regulatory reforms rather than subsidies.
- Founding members include Novo Holdings, Forbion, HealthCap, Omega Funds, Sofinnova Partners, and law firms Cooley and Covington & Burling.
- Participants say they collectively manage about €24 billion in life-sciences assets and have backed or helped found more than 1,400 companies.
- Data cited by the group highlight structural gaps: European life-sciences VC is 7% of the global market versus 63% in the US and 14% in China, and 66 of 67 recent EU biotech IPOs listed outside the bloc.
- Regulatory friction is a key concern, with EU multinational trial approvals averaging about 113 days versus roughly 60 in the US and China, prompting warnings of a “hollowing-out” from investors such as Novo Holdings’ Naveed Siddiqi and AstraZeneca’s Sir Pascal Soriot.