NLS Opinion and Debate

As a policy insider who has dealt with the intricacies of life science, I am aware of the challenge of taking a molecule from bench to bedside. It’s an arduous journey that more often than not ends in disappointment. Policy work follows a surprisingly similar trajectory. Years of work for passing a minor legislative change may, in the end, yield little to nothing. 

SwedenBIO’s International Director, Marjo Puumalainen, shares her insights on emerging life science trends based on her many interactions from across the industry, including at JPM. The Nordic life science industry, she notes, is well positioned to take full advantage of several of these trends.  

SwedenBIO recently released our new Swedish Drug Discovery and Development Pipeline Report 2026 at NLSDays in Gothenburg. This fourteenth edition once again shows that Swedish drug development remains on a stable trajectory. Fluctuations in the number of drug-developing companies and in the number or type of projects are minimal compared to our report from three years ago.

As the EU pushes for a more competitive life science sector, Medicon Valley Alliance is reaching across borders to connect Europe’s fragmented innovation clusters rather than let each country try to build everything alone.

Every successful region has a place where collaboration is allowed to take root and grow. A place that protects early ideas, carries learning forward, and helps people work together across borders even when the systems around them are not built for it. In Medicon Valley, many now share a simple vision: to create a kind of greenhouse for Nordic life science cooperation.

To succeed as a life science cluster in a medium-sized region, you need to prioritize and pick your battles.

Last month, The Life Science Cluster attracted a record number of investors to its annual Investor Partnering Day in Oslo. Interest in life sciences is clearly growing. But why and why now?

Geopolitics is no longer background noise, but an obvious risk factor shaping strategy and timelines. In this new reality, investors and clusters can help entrepreneurs build resilience. Not just by supplying capital, but by strengthening decision-making under uncertainty.

Norway can deliver on the EU’s ambitious life science strategy and contribute to health preparedness by building national capacity for RNA formulation and scale-up. 

Finland may be modest in population, but it has built one of the world’s most connected and capable cancer research ecosystems. Hospitals, universities, startups, and national initiatives work together in a culture that values trust, openness, and shared purpose. 

The Finnish economy has had difficulties achieving robust growth following the financial crisis. The number of startups in the life science sector is declining and existing companies are struggling to secure funding.

The competitiveness of the EU is waning. In his speech in Berlin on May 22, 2023 the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said, “The question ahead of us is: how do we continue to grow our European industry? The answer is: with a European Industrial Deal at the same level of a European Green […]