The European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group have today announced an initiative to mobilise €10 billion in investment in 2026-27 into the biotech and life sciences sector. The project aims to give a significant boost to the EU’s competitiveness in biotechnology, by addressing the EU’s current investment gap and mobilising public-private investment into promising new health solutions.
Biotech can revolutionise healthcare, by delivering ground-breaking medicines and treatments to patients, such as AI-driven cardiac sensors to monitor for heart failure, mRNA therapies or monoclonal antibodies to help the immune system to spot harmful cells quickly. It is at the core of pioneering work in gene therapies, personalised medicine and biopharmaceuticals, such as synthetic insulin.
This initiative, BioTechEU, will be part of the EIB Group’s TechEU programme, leveraging support from the InvestEU guarantee and other sources. It builds on the EIB Group’s current life sciences venture debt portfolio of about €3.5 billion across 135 projects, which is recognised for its catalytic impact as well as the EIF’s long-standing commitment to the European venture capital (c. €800m annual investments). The BioTechEU initiative could also lay the foundation for the design of a new EU Health Biotech Investment Pilot, which would attract new private investors and act as a market catalyst.
Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, said: Under-investment is a major stumbling block for Europe’s biotech companies and a serious obstacle for our innovative start-ups. The BioTechEU project should contribute to reversing that trend. It will provide the EU’s biotech sector with financial support grow, so that new treatments can reach the patients.
Nadia Calviño, President of the European Investment Bank, said: “Europe’s biotech sector is a leader in health innovation and full of talent and ideas. Through BioTechEU, we aim to unlock €10 billion in investment and to ensure that breakthroughs made in Europe can scale and thrive in Europe.”
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