Brussels, 28 May 2025

EuropaBio welcomes the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy published today, and its efforts towards better financing mechanisms, faster market uptake and expansion, improved access to infrastructures, networks and services, and innovation-friendly regulation.

Representing over 4500 small and medium-sized biotechnology companies, including startups and scaleups, EuropaBio emphasises their essential role in contributing to the European economy, industrial transition and retaining new talents and skills in the Union.

Simpler mechanisms for accessing finance and market and regulatory frameworks can significantly overcome the hurdles faced by European biotech startups and scaleups, which are highly research-driven and capital-intensive. In this framework, intellectual property rights (IPRs) deserve specific attention as they are the primary, and often only, assets for small companies to leverage access to investment in order to bridge the innovation and industrial gap in Europe.

EuropaBio stresses that any definition of startup, scaleup and innovative company should consider the unique characteristics of biotech companies, and not risking exclusion from current funding instruments.  

Dr Claire Skentelbery, Director General of EuropaBio, says, “Biotech startups and scaleups are the seed of Europe’s biotech success and we must enable them to anchor and grow here if Europe is to reach its stated goals for citizen benefits and competitiveness in the global market.”