Brussels, 30 September 2026 – Europe is home to world-leading biotechnology research, and policymakers, investors, and industry leaders are joining forces today at the European Parliament to ensure the EU creates the framework required to scale and retain these life changing innovations.

Hosted by Regina Doherty MEP, EuropaBio and BioPharmaChem Ireland are bringing togetherfounders, institutional investors, and senior European Commission representatives for Draghi Needs Friends: Scaling European Biotech. The event centres on delivering Mario Draghi’s competitiveness agenda during Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, focusing on strengthening Europe’s late-stage financing ecosystem and ensuring high-growth life sciences companies can scale, list, and thrive on European soil.

While European early-stage innovation is thriving, European companies face a significant opportunity to capture more value across the Single Market as they mature. Over the last six years, 66 out of 67 EU biotechnology companies that went public chose exchanges outside the EU – highlighting a structural scale-up gap that current policy momentum is actively working to solve.

The European Commission estimates the annual IP-backed growth financing gap at up to €18 billion. Today’s event spotlights actionable solutions, including mobilising European institutional capital. A new report by Dansk Biotek (Bridging the Gap) shows that aligning European pension fund venture allocations with international benchmarks could unlock over €15 billion in new scaling capital, creating dedicated Series B and C funding pools to fuel European growth.

Momentum is building around four key European initiatives designed to complete the ecosystem: EU Inc., the European Innovation Act, the Biotech Act, and the Savings and Investments Union. Today’s session connects the policymakers guiding these files – including the Secretariat-General’s Task Force on Competitiveness, DG RTD, and DG FISMA – alongside the European Investment Bank, Invest Europe, venture capitalists, and biotech founders to fast track their real-world impact.

Regina Doherty MEP said: "The Savings and Investments Union needs to be a vital part of the biotech conversation. Europeans are some of the best savers in the world. But too much of that money sits in bank deposits earning very little, while our most promising companies go to New York or Boston to raise the capital they need to grow. The SIU is about changing that: turning savers into investors and making sure money backs innovation."

Dr Claire Skentelbery, Director General of EuropaBio, said: "We have an extraordinary window of opportunity during this legislative mandate to transform
how Europe finances its high-growth sectors. The policy instruments are on the table. Our objective now is to ensure they arrive swiftly and support companies as they bridge the journey from early discovery to global market success inside the EU."

Dr Sinéad Keogh, Director of BioPharmaChem Ireland, said: "Our recent indigenous report, Together for Others, highlighted a €1.1 billion equity financing gap facing scaling biopharma companies in Ireland. This reflects a broader European challenge where world-class scientific discoveries struggle to access the late-stage risk capital needed to scale. By advancing the Savings and Investments Union and enabling institutional investors, including pension funds, to allocate capital into high-growth innovation, we can bridge this gap. Connecting domestic scaling needs with European capital market reforms gives our indigenous life sciences sector the foundation to grow, list, and remain anchored in Europe. "