Autumn 2023

Cell & Gene Therapy – Getting Europe rolling

Cell and Gene Therapies (CGTs) have emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors in the life sciences industry, even though supply chains in the field are more complex than in traditional pharma. That’s because CGTs for rare diseases mostly can’t be produced centrally, and still require a lot of hands-on work, including directly in clinics. For companies to take advantage of Europe’s excellent science base, networking stakeholders and safe reimbursement are proving to be crucial factors. The EU has some catching up to do.

In this issue:

Steak hollandaise 2.0

Biotech start-ups that want to completely decouple protein production from agriculture due to environmental and animal protection benefits have been blocked by the EU’s stubbornly slow Novel Food Regulation. This summer, the Dutch Government paved the way to giving consumers early and rapid access to cellular agriculture products through unique tasting events.

Ending the deadlock?

With an aggressive legislative proposal to exempt crops modified biotechnologically within the species’ own gene pool from the strict controls of EU genetic engineering rules, the EU Commission wants to bring Europe back to the top of the world in plant breeding. If its draft regulation goes through unchanged, the EU would have one of the most liberal regulations in the world. Most EU agricultural ministers support the draft.