The Irish, Lithuanian and Greek Presidencies of the Council of the European Union published, on Friday 24 July, a concept paper ahead of the meeting of the Working Party on Competitiveness and Growth on 7 September, devoted to ways of accelerating the development of European biotechnologies (see EUROPE 13889/7) and their market access.
The document recalls that life sciences, biotechnologies and the bioeconomy occupy a prominent place on the European Union’s competitiveness agenda. The European bioeconomy was worth as much as €2.7 trillion in 2023, employed 17.1 million people and generated €863 billion in added value; its growth outpaced that of the European economy over the last decade.
However, the document reports difficulties in turning discoveries into products marketed on a large scale. The future ‘Biotech Act II’ should go beyond the first text, focused on health, by incorporating industrial biotechnologies and biomanufacturing.
The Trio Presidency points to several limitations, including regulatory complexity, insufficient funding for scaling up, as well as commercialisation difficulties.
In addition, it notes that 66 of the 67 European biotechnology companies floated over a six-year period chose a stock exchange outside the European Union.
The Member States will be invited to discuss the industrial policies and regulatory developments best able to support growth in this area.
The document: https://aeur.eu/f/n1h (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)