Sofinnova PartnersThe recent resurgence of life sciences IPOs in the US highlights a persistent structural imbalance: Europe generates world-class science but struggles to finance and retain it. The European Life Sciences Coalition was created to address this gap by mobilizing institutional capital and strengthening the policy framework needed to scale European innovation at home.
www.istockphoto.com/YuriFor decades, biotech companies were formed around a discovery: a promising biological signal, a novel target, a platform emerging from academic research. Now a different formation model is gaining momentum: venture studios. These entities don’t just fund startups, they assemble them, testing hypotheses, building teams and infrastructure, and only then spinning out companies designed to scale.
Adcendo ApSCopenhagen-based biotech Adcendo ApS has closed an oversubscribed US$75 million Series C round led by Jeito Capital. The funds will fuel early-phase trials of three ADC candidates for cancers with high unmet need.
Pic by Susan Wilkinson via UnsplashClean Food Group has secured £4.5 million from a group of investors led by Clean Growth Fund and New Agrarian, together with £700,000 in non-dilutive funding from Innovate UK. The London-based biotech will use the funds to accelerate the ramp-up of the world’s largest yeast-based oils and fats facility in Knowsley, Liverpool.
BioNTechMainz‑based biotech BioNTech has presented compelling Phase II data for its compound trastuzumab pamirtecan. The antibody–drug conjugate (ADC) was evaluated in patients with advanced uterine cancer who had previously undergone multiple lines of treatment.
David Dorward; Ph.D.; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)Amid chronic under-investments in new antibacterial weapons, Basilea Pharmaceutica has secured an additional US$6 million from CARB‑X to fund the first‑in‑human Phase I trial of a novel Gram‑negative antibiotic now entering early clinical development. The compound BAL2420 targets LptA, part of the lipopolysaccharide transport bridge that Gram negative bacteria rely on to build their outer membrane.
Pic by Immo Wegmann via UnsplashJeito Capital has closed its second dedicated biopharma fund, Jeito II, on a record US$1.2 billion (€1 billion), making it the largest fund ever raised by a fully independent European biopharma-focused private equity firm. The move firmly places Jeito among the leading global backers of clinical stage innovation.
Tubulis GmbHFor Tubulis, the time for an exit has arrived: US based pharma group Gilead is set to pay up to US$5bn for the biotech’s ADC expertise.
VanessaSpencer - stock.adobe.comFor years, Portugal sat just outside Europe’s main biotech conversation: scientifically credible, strong in research, but too small, too fragmented and too thinly financed to compete with the established hubs in Switzerland, the UK, France, Germany or the Nordics. That view is becoming harder to defend. Portugal still does not have the scale of Europe’s top biotech markets, but it is building something more durable than a collection of isolated startups.
EyEM, Freepik.comThe Copenhagen-based cancer immunotherapy company IO Biotech has come to an abrupt end, marking one of the more sobering recent failures in Europe’s mid-cap biotech segment. Founded in 2019, the company had sought to position itself at the forefront of therapeutic cancer vaccines, but a decisive clinical and regulatory setback ultimately proved insurmountable.