“We appreciate the extensive work that has been done – not least by the Swedish government, which has played an important role in the negotiations,” says SwedenBIO’s CEO Jessica Martinsson. “But we must also be honest, in its current form the legislation does not strengthen the EU’s competitiveness. On the contrary, if anything, there is a significant risk that the EU will further lose ground to other regions in terms of investments, clinical trials and the ability to attract new biotech companies.”

For the small and medium-sized life science companies that SwedenBIO represents, it is crucial that Europe offers predictability, attractive innovation incentives and strong protection for knowledge-intensive development. This is necessary for risk capital to be invested in groundbreaking research – and for new treatments to reach patients on time. The new proposal effectively means shortened protection periods for medicines for rare diseases. This will make the EU less attractive in this area, emphasizes SwedenBIO.

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The European Commission has presented its proposed Biotech Act

The Biotech Act is an initiative to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness in biotechnology and drug development.


An environment that not only retains but attracts new investment

It is now very important that the continued work on the Biotech Act has a very clear focus on competitiveness, SwedenBIO states further. This is where the EU must now place its emphasis – on securing innovation capacity, strengthening the conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises and creating an environment that not only retains but attracts new investment.

Source: SwedenBIO