Lack of finance in Europe pushes companies to the USA, says trade body

Trade body European Biopharmaceutical Enterprises (EBE) says that the European Union pharma sector is suffering as biopharmaceutical entrepreneurs can’t finance growth in the EU. It notes that this week’s major biopharmaceutical event, BIO, in San Diego, USA, has attracted many European biopharmaceutical entrepreneurs because they are not able to find sufficient financial support in Europe.

According to FlandersBio, a delegation of 75 entrepreneurs from Belgium alone made its way to the USA seeking financial support and collaboration partners to help them keep their projects going. BioTechNow indicates that in 2013 only four European biotech companies went public whereas 23 initial public offerings (IPOs) can be attributed to the US market. In order to prevent Europe from risking a further loss of entrepreneurs and competitiveness, several stakeholders came together in Brussels to take part in a high-level dialogue on financing in the biopharmaceutical market. EU officials from the European Investment Bank and the European Commission, as well as small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) representatives and Venture Capital angels analyzed current financing mechanisms and sought to identify solutions to overcome the so called ‘death-valley’ that many entrepreneurs are facing beyond the early stage and seed financing level.

Collaborative research aims to redress balance