OECD Blog Item Explores Why Biotech Start-Ups Lag in Europe

On April 27, 2026, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a blog item entitled “Biotech start-ups in Europe: Why does the EU lag behind competitors and what can policymakers do about it? ” According to the item, evidence shows that Europe still lags competitors in biotech start-up creation, patenting, and venture capital funding. OECD’s blog item “unpacks the gap and explores how agile regulation and smarter financing tools” can help European Union (EU) policymakers build a more competitive biotechnology start-up ecosystem. As reported in our December 18, 2025, blog item, on December 15, 2025, the European Commission (EC) announceda legislative package that includes a proposal for a regulation to establish measures to strengthen the EU’s biotechnology and biomanufacturing sectors (Biotech Act). OECD notes that the Biotech Act appears to address several of the barriers, including “introduc[ing] regulatory sandboxes to allow controlled experimentation with novel technologies, expand[ing] pre-submission consultations to help innovators navigate regulatory submission processes, creat[ing] a strategic project designation to fast-track funding and regulatory clearance, and establish[ing] a €10 billion Health Biotechnology Investment Pilot with the European Investment Bank to mobilise private capital through risk-sharing instruments.” The blog item concludes that the long-term impact of these measures will depend on whether regulation becomes more agile in practice and whether financing instruments reach biotech start-ups at the costly stages of demonstration and scale-up. OECD states that “[c]losing the gap in biotechnology start-up creation, venture capital investment and patenting will require measures designed with start-ups explicitly in mind: faster, simpler and more accessible pathways that turn Europe’s research excellence into commercial activity.”