Ep. 358 - Europe's biotech challenge

Biotech innovators around the world are finding speed to be the driver for investment and partnering — speed to early human data and speed to de-risk assets. The new momentum from Asia, in particular China, has added a fresh challenge for European biotech on top of falling equity and R&D investment in Europe and a complex drug pricing landscape. On a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast on the eve of the 26th Bio€quity Europe conference, EQT Life Sciences' Christoph Broja and Prague Bio CEO Petra Kinzlová join BioCentury’s analysts to discuss the challenges faced by European biotech today and what the best strategy is to compete in this new era.

Kinzlová also describes a growing biotech ecosystem in the Czech Republic, which will host Bio€quity Europe May 4-6.

View full story: https://www.biocentury.com/article/659002

#EuropeanBiotech #ClinicalDevelopmentSpeed #ChinaBiotech #DrugPricing #BiotechInvestment

01:10 - Bio€quity Europe Preview
04:32 - Czech Innovation Hubs
09:52 - Pricing, Trials, Funding
13:07 - Fixing Trial Bottlenecks
17:49 - Pension Capital and Risk

To submit a question to BioCentury’s editors, email the BioCentury This Week team at podcasts@biocentury.com.

Transcript

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[AI-generated transcript.]

Jeff Cranmer: 0:02

Biotech innovators around the world are finding speed to be the driver for investment and partnering. Speed to the clinic, speed to early human data and speed to de-risk assets. There's new momentum from Asia and an unpredictable landscape in the U.S. The question for European biotech, which is what we're going to be talking about on this special edition of the BioCentury this week podcast, is what is the best strategy to compete in this era? How can European biotech rise above the noise? I'm Jeff Cranmer, host of the BioCentury's This Week podcast, and joining me are uh, BioCentury's, editor-in-Chief, Simone Fishburne and Stephen Hansen. BioCentury's man in the U.K. will also have special guests Petra Kinzlová, she is the CEO of Prague.bio, joining us from the Czech Republic, and Christophe Broja of EQT Life Sciences, joining us from Snowy Munich. now we're recording this podcast a month away from the kickoff of BioCentury's 26th Bio€quity Europe conference, which will be held in Prague. That'll be May 4th to 6th. I'm gonna go right to Simone. Simone, you'll be kicking off Bio€quity as you usually do at our events around the world. Teeing up the most critical issues facing, European biotech, the U.K. Um, what's top of mind for you?

Simone Fishburn: 1:41

Thank you, Jeff. Well, it is really always a pleasure to, do this podcast before Bio€quity and also to kick off Bio€quity. So, Bio€quity Europe is really a financing conference, right? We bring top tier investors, they meet with companies, and we discuss, you know, we have a little euro sign in the equity part of Bio€quity We discussed financing, investment and that landscape for Europe. This year though, it's very clear that there is a direct line between investment and speed in the clinic, right? Speed is the new currency, and that's something that we've been talking about at BioCentury's. It's a big theme for us this year, and needless to say, this is really being precipitated by the rise of China. So let me just join the dots for people. What we are seeing is a tremendous amount of deal flow from China where, small China companies are becoming very competitive, both for partnering and for. Investment dollars. And that is largely because in China you can generate early clinical data very fast. And what that has done is raise the bar globally. The US is learning. It has to respond. Europe is learning. It has to respond, and so there's tremendous focus on how do we generate clinical data faster. You could think about it as how do we make the whole clinical enterprise more efficient? But a lot of the focus, especially on investment dollars for early stages on de-risking. And so if you can get that early clinical data faster, you have a better position. that's sort of like, the premise the foundation of the discussion. And in the Scene Setter, we always take a look at Europe. This year, we're not actually specifically looking at investment dollars, or partnering. What we are looking at is clinical trials, and so we will be looking at what are the areas within Europe that are globally competitive and competitive within Europe in terms of concentrations of trials, let's say for specific therapeutic areas. We will be looking at recruitment rates. We will be looking at which regions or countries within Europe sort of are over index. Where do you have a specific concentration maybe relative to their population? And I'm not gonna tip my hand anymore to that because my colleague Lindsay Martin is feverishly crunching data right now, so can't really say anything about which area, but you know, we are particularly interested and I'm gonna throw to Petra in a minute, because we always like to focus in also on the host and, and you know, this is our first time in this part of central Europe, we're extremely excited to bring Bio€quity to the Czech Republic. and to Prague in particular, I haven't been, so I'm very excited to go. Um, and so, Petra, maybe you wanna pick up the conversation and talk about it from there.

Petra Kinzlová: 4:49

Absolutely Simon, thank you very much. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, the colleagues. Uh, and I'm also very pleased to be here, so thank you very much for having me here. It's a great opportunity for us. As it was said, I represent Prague.bio, which is, uh, the Regional Host of Bio€quity Europe 2026, and also a member-based association. We are focusing on connecting and supporting the biotech ecosystem across the Czech Republic, and our goal is to position Prague and Czech Republic and the region as a serious investible biotech hub within Europe. So if we look closely, then center in Eastern Europe is no longer undiscovered region, but it is a region with the growing importance in biotech and life science. We definitely have a strong scientific base. We have a long tradition in chemistry, molecule biology, drug discovery. And what is changing now is the translation layer. So we can see more startups, better technology transfer, and increasing engagement from international investors. The region is emerging and credible, strong in science, as I said, and we are increasingly aware of the quality and potential of the region. And we are very happy and proud that we will be able to show it via Bio€quity Europe. So for me personally, Bio€quity Europe, which is held for the very first time in its 26th year history as it was set in this region, is both a proof of the quality and potential of the region. And at the same time, it's a new opportunity for local and global ecosystem. This is like, our opportunity and we are very, happy that we will be able to welcome you all very soon in Prague.

Jeff Cranmer: 6:37

Excellent. Uh, Petra, I'm curious, what, what are some of the academic centers that are helping to drive innovation in the Czech Republic?

Petra Kinzlová: 6:46

Absolutely. I would name probably Prague and Brno as the main, uh, let's say clusters or areas main hubs for biotech and life science. Prague traditionally is very strong in medical chemistry and early drug discovery, and uh, we have a world famous known institution called IOCB, Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry. And it definitely plays a central role in all the ecosystem. It has created, thanks to the discoveries by, uh, Professor Antonín Holý, who did his research on, uh, especially on antibiotic drugs against Hepatitis and HIV. Thanks to, this research and all the royalties, uh, the institute was able to create a remarkable ecosystem, together with, uh, its IOCB Boston Branch, actually in the U.S. and also it's dedicated company, IOCB Tech that specializes in technology transfer. So there is this potential to replicate the story of Professor Holý and to replicate the success of this ecosystem. And also Prague.bio as my organization and Regional Host of Bio€quity is also part of this ecosystem. It was created, uh, in order to provide some platform for institutions and both academic and business, companies from across the country. So we actually, uh, exist since 2023, and we are gaining more and more members to build this robust ecosystem within the country and within the region. And the May maybe, sorry, maybe Jeff. I would add not to stay in Prague only, but there is also, the second largest, city in the Czech Republic, which is Brno, and it has also very remarkable institutions with a very good infrastructure. Among others I would like to name Masaryk University and its center CEITEC. And more, maybe if I connected directly to the panels and program of Bio€quity Europe, then we will have, basically two panel discussions that will be focused on the region, one is Regional Host Panel and the other one is a CEE focused panel as far as I know. And, uh, one of the, our panelist speakers will be Tomáš Cihlář, who is, uh the world known scientist of Czech origin working for Gilead Sciences that is directly connected to the story of Professor Holý and HIV research. So this is very nice story, and I think very important event in the history of our ecosystem.

Jeff Cranmer: 9:18

Excellent. Well, I've had the pleasure of working closely with one of your colleagues, Jiri, who's, uh, one of my hats here at BioCentury's is to select the companies who will get on stage and tell their story, the presenting companies at all of our conferences, and, uh, your colleague Jiri is, uh, served up, uh, about a hundred. Companies from Central Europe, uh, many, many, Czech Republic companies. And I've gotta say the innovation, that some of these companies are working on is, quite cool and we're, uh, delighted to bring them to the stage. Now I wanna take a, a step back, in thinking about how Europe changes its trajectory, we're, we're sort of looking at three pieces here. Um, Simone had, a great conversation with Daniel Mahony, on our sister podcast, which will be out tomorrow. He really drilled down into pricing. she also spoke with Lawrence Tallon, CEO of MHRA, for a Q&A that was out last week really talking about what the U.K. needs to do to level up its ecosystem. so there's the pricing piece, there's the trial piece, and then there's the funding piece. Maybe, uh, we're gonna bring in Christophe in just a moment, but I wanna turn to my colleague Stephen, who wrote a piece not too long ago called, EU Investors Sound the Alarm. It's about a new coalition of investors calling for increased capital inflows into, Europe's biotech funds. Stephen, can you set the stage for us on why are investors sounding the alarm basically?

Stephen Hansen: 10:54

Sure. Thanks Jeff. so they launched this back in February and, it connects into what Simone was talking about earlier as well, and that part of the, so, as you mentioned, the coalition is essentially looking to try and raise awareness and try and influence policy decisions both on funding biotech in Europe and on making it more globally competitive. Everything that someone was talking about earlier, the thing that really strikes me now is that I think we finally had some recognition that just as companies have to compete on a global stage, you know, for their medicines to be attractive. You know, they have to have an attractive commercial profile. I think we're finally really seeing governments, you know, realize that if they want investment, if they want the R&D, if they want clinical trials to be conducted in their country, they also have to provide an attractive offering, for those things to be done. And so, we're seeing that in the U.K. which I think we'll probably get to. Um, but we're seeing that in Europe as well. I think some recognition there. And so this, this European Life Sciences Coalition is kind of meant to try and. I guess supercharge some of those efforts. So, um, as you mentioned, part of it is around trying to mobilize, institutional capital to get into, um, have more exposure to places like venture. so I think the one, one of the numbers that they mentioned was European pension funds are, you know. Sort of chronically underweight in terms of their venture exposure. I think it was the, the number was 0.02% are invested in venture versus 2% for US pension funds. And so there will be a, I think, a strong push to not only try and educate, European pension funds about, the benefits of, of having, you know, more of a diversified portfolio, but also working with like the EIB to try and establish sort of cost efficient, uh, instruments. That would kind of make it easier for them to be able to get exposure to venture. So whether that's through a fund to fund vehicle, something like that. But then they were also, you know, talking about, you know, how do we make Europe a better place for conducting clinical trials and make it more competitive like we've been talking about. And so part of that I think will go through the EU Biotech Act, which only just came out I think in December. It was sort of proposed. And the aim of that is really to try and simplify and shorten kind of the end-to-end authorization timelines for multinational clinical trials. What I'd be curious, Christophe, if I can maybe bring you in here, is, is just to maybe get your perspective just from what you hear from your portfolio companies that are running trials in Europe. What are the pain points in some of the issues that they often encounter there, and have you seen them sort of, you know, leaving?'cause I think that was one of the other issues the coalition raised was that there's been this slow loss, essentially of, of Europe's place as a, as a destination for trials. And so I'm curious if you're seeing that, if that's reflected in your own portfolio.

Christoph Broja: 13:37

Yeah, it's a good question and thanks for having me. Uh, really grateful to be part of the discussion. I'm very much looking forward also to to the upcoming conference. Um, absolutely. I mean, it has become a lot more topical, in board meetings and, between board meetings, in our discussions on where we run these trials. Especially if you also think about areas where China has really excelled. If you think about, for example, cell therapy and the sort of example that an Esobiotec has said. Everybody, is asking themselves now, how can we get to data quicker and cheaper, using that same playbook. And I think when you just look at the, the data points, Europe has really, lost. Quite a bit of market share in terms of global, commercial trials over the last decade. And, uh, that is the result of a very fragmented regulatory, framework where you can take examples like ethics approvals, right, in Europe. Instead of having one centralized ethics approval and being able to use that across countries, uh, you have to apply on a country by country level, to different ethics bodies. And that is just a, a disadvantage compared to China, also compared to the US for example, where you can really carry that ethics approval across, different state borders. And we have to work on that. And I, I know, uh, Europe has started to address these topics. And I hope, uh, that we'll bear some fruits in the, in the years to come.

Simone Fishburn: 15:04

Gosh, Christophe, I have so many questions for you from that. Okay. So, you know, one of the things that, so a couple of things here. One is, you know, talking with Lawrence Tallon, who is the CEO of MHRA, that's the U.K.'s version of FDA or of EMA is actually what I should say as well, because certainly the U.K. regulatory environment suffered after Brexit. I think we can all say that. And it was in the wilderness. And, and what they're doing now is addressing exactly some of the things you're talking about, trying to streamline things. They've got very concrete proposals. Some are concrete. Okay. You know, 14 day turnaround, things like that. And then a small country like the U.K. has the ability to do that, to impose, for example, what they're calling a single contracting system across all the NHS hospitals. So my first question along these lines is, is that feasible, necessary for Europe? You know, it's 27 countries. One of the things we've talked with, uh, Jérôme van Biervli et from VIB about. He's talked about you don't really need 27 countries. What if you got two or three to agree to something? I wondered if we could get your take, because most people look at Europe and they think, oh my gosh, 27 countries. How will you ever get coordination across that? And at the same time, this is a really important juncture, right? In biotech where if Europe is gonna be competitive, it's going to need to change that. Perhaps you could talk a little bit about the

Christoph Broja: 16:38

I mean, So, yeah, I think, I think, um, I, I really commend, uh, the U.K. for taking a, a pretty aggressive stance towards these timelines, and it can really lead the way, for Europe. I think having a, a firm commitment to getting back to the sponsor, is very important because the reality right now that we see in some of our European portfolio companies is that there is no timeline for regulatory authorities to, for example, respond to a CTA, which is very different, for example, also to the US where the US has, uh, the FDA has 30 days to respond. I know that clock can be restarted or, or paused, but at least there is a firm timeline for regulators to respond to sponsors and we don't have that in Europe. And I think that already would be an important improvement.

Stephen Hansen: 17:28

Right. And, and I think that is something that they're looking to address in that biotech act, right? I think there's something in there about trying to get it down to like, I think there was something about 47 days potentially end to end. But again, I'm not sure if that's, you know, apples to apples with what we're talking about in the U.S. But there's definitely, I, I think at least finally some recognition that that's a problem, right?

Simone Fishburn: 17:49

Can, can I, um, just have one of my follow up questions to Christophe because wanna go back to the pension capital, 'cause this was another thing in the U.K. that I talk to Dan Mahony about, with a Mansion House Compact, Stephen has written about this, explained it. Dan Mahony went all the way back to explaining Robert Maxwell, who started all this. But, but basically, um, you know, the pension funds have, in the U.K. not really engaged with biotech for various reasons. They're trying to change that, but a lot of that, which I think is true in Europe as well as cultural, and it's about risk appetite. And I'm wondering, whether there's a lot of education of pension funds or other aspects of, creating a more risk tolerant or risk embracing environment among investors or among the LPs of investors.

Stephen Hansen: 18:38

Simone. So let, let me just jump in here quick. I mean, the way that I've understood it from talking to, you know, investors about this issue, is that, a lot of it just goes back to pension funds and kind of the, the mission I guess, that they've often been been given, which is to effectively don't lose people's money. So they're, they're, they're really just

Jeff Cranmer: 18:58

I, I need to institute that in my own house.

Stephen Hansen: 19:02

So, I mean, that that's their overriding kind of like investment sort of mission is, to like make sure that these pensioners actually have money when they're, in their seventies and eighties. And so I think from that perspective, they are highly risk averse and I think that's been drilled into these teams and these, and these pension funds for so long. That it's, maybe goes to the metaphor of, you know, it's trying to turn around a an aircraft carrier. It just takes time to change that mindset, you know? And, and that was a thing in the US right? I mean, I, I think there was a, there was a fundamental shift, but it, that came in the seventies for the US pension funds. And again, it took them time. It's not like pension funds, you know, in the early 1980s were heavily invested in alternative assets. It took them time, I think, to get that exposure and to build up the teams. And I think that's just the other aspect that will take some time for these pension funds is they have to have the appropriate personnel in their teams to make these assessments of the risk and just to be able to do it properly. And that just takes time. So I'm kind of got my fingers crossed that, you know, in the U.K. here, we'll start to open up the pension funds and we'll start to open up, in Europe as well.

Christoph Broja: 20:09

agree. Uh uh, Steven and. Maybe to add to that, I, I think one of the fundamental issues is that, you can manage risk in biotech by providing more capital to companies to build out their pipelines and to build them so that they're not binary stories that have to focus on maybe just one clinical asset. So. I think more capital can do more and can also address some of the fundamental concerns, but it's a bit of a chicken and egg problem. We first need to have more capital available, both privately as well as in the public market to be able to not drip feed companies and build bigger, more robust platforms.

Simone Fishburn: 20:45

I'm gonna make one more comment and you can choose whether you respond or not, but I think it's also clear the big overhang really. Is drug pricing in Europe. And I think that as you build ecosystems, and we do see this with various regions like China, there's a real importance for having pharmas come in plant roots and, and invest and feel that they can market their drugs. So of course Europe has its own homegrown pharmas a few of them, but even they are pushing back and, and very frustrated with Europe and the U.K. on pricing. And so I personally feel that, this is a moment that, um, especially as, the US creates a lot of uncertainty around this. With most favored nation, those things may go away, but the drug pricing pressure's not going away. And so it is an opportunity for Europe to find a way to, it's going to need to find a way, I should say, to address its issues of drug pricing. If it's not, gonna sort of end up left behind by the pharmas, that's, that's how I look at it.

Christoph Broja: 21:53

I completely agree. I would also say that, for a long time the US has subsidized innovation globally, including in Europe. Because they take a very different view on the value of drugs, where they really look at long-term, what does this do to society. And I do think it's on us, on all of us to explain the true value of these new medicines. Yeah, uh, see that we can have better commercial opportunities also in Europe because otherwise everybody's always going to at the end of the day, orient themselves on the US market opportunity.

Jeff Cranmer: 22:27

All right. Well, I think, uh, the challenge has been thrown down there. Uh, we, we heard some of this from Peter Kolchinsky as well on our sister podcast a few weeks back, he, uh, certainly didn't pull his punches. It's a good thing you're not in France, Christoph, you'll have to listen to that one. So I'd like to thank our guests. Petra is wonderful, learning about the ecosystem that is growing in the Czech Republic, and Christophe, I hope the snow melts for you. It, it's getting a little crazy. It's April. and, uh, look forward very much to having you both at Bio€quity Europe, in Prague, May 4th through 6th. And thanks to Simone and Stephen, as always, and this has been a special edition of the BioCentury This Week podcast. We'll come back to you on Monday with our regular program. and a thanks to Kendall Square Orchestra, which provides the music for BioCentury's Podcast.