New investment funds for SMEs, adopting new technologies, and public-private partnerships are the ingredients of Denmark’s recipe for boosting the EU’s life sciences, according to the Danish Life Science Council.

To boost Europe’s global competitiveness, the European Commission is preparing a proposal for a European Life Sciences Strategy to be launched later this year.

Denmark’s government recently submitted its input for the Strategy based on a report from the Danish Life Science Council.

“Europe needs to step up its game,” said the Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science, Christina Egelund (Liberal Alliance/EPP), in a press statement following the report launch.

“As the Life Science Council recommends, we must become even better at utilising the opportunities in areas such as artificial intelligence and quantum technology, where Danish researchers are already far ahead. This is an important agenda that we must prioritise in Denmark and the EU,” she added.

Now is the time

The Danish Life Science Council is made up of stakeholders from both the country’s life science industry and representatives from public bodies such as the Danish Medicines Agency, Rigshospitalet, and patient associations.

One of the Council members, Ida Sofie Jensen, the Director General of LIF (Danish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry), told Euractiv that she considers Europe now needs to regain its global position in the life science sector.

“Otherwise, we will end up as the losers when it comes to future health innovation.”

“In the best-case scenario,” she remarked, “the EU must ensure Europe’s patients have access to first-class prevention and treatment and be ready to embrace new technologies in personalised medicine, advanced therapies and AI-powered digital solutions to put Europe back at the forefront of innovative medicine and research. It’s going to be a long haul, but I hope we can achieve an EU life science strategy as soon as possible. The EU needs it.”

A larger growth layer

As the strategy is being developed, its scope and exactly which sectors will be targeted are not yet known.

However, according to the report, the Danish Life Science Council wants to achieve “a vibrant and innovative industrial landscape characterised by innovation-friendly regulation, high productivity, investment and a strong focus on public-private partnerships to accelerate the uptake of new technologies in healthcare.”

Reaching that point calls for a larger growth layer, which means easier access to venture capital for small and medium-sized companies.

Investment funding

The report also suggests that the EU should analyse possible models for establishing a European Life Science Investment Fund through the European Investment Fund, EIF, and new European late venture funds to address the needs of scaling companies.

Additionally, it proposes that the European Investment Bank (EIB) should enable direct equity investment in strategic sectors such as AI, MedTech, and life sciences/bio-medicine and that the EU should invest more funding into life sciences research through the Horizon Europe research programme.

A key point is facilitating clinical testing by creating a multi-country clinical trial ecosystem and establishing a dedicated European Life Sciences Council.

Citizens’ voices 

Commenting on the Commission’s open call for evidence, stakeholders and EU citizens weighed in to “further develop and fine-tune this initiative.” Non-EU players have also commented.

The United States NGO ‘RareGen Youth Network’ said it hopes the EU Commission will explicitly include equity safeguards, targeted incentives for orphan drug innovation, and streamlined pathways for rare and neglected disease R&D.

Another reply comes from the Italian company Curio Bio, which develops technology for complex cell biology.

It urges the EU to adopt emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, and quantum computing, which are considered essential for positioning Europe at the forefront of global medical research.

Doctor Peiter R. Roelfsema, a researcher and former director of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam (2007-2023), as well as the owner of the start-up company Phoshenix, asserts that the strategy must reform EU funding mechanisms that, according to Roelfsema, create a divide between outstanding basic research and applied research.

While the European Life Sciences Strategy is to be launched later this year, interested parties can now have their say through a call for evidence until 17 April.

[Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi, Brian Maguire]