While European pharmaceutical companies are making one billion-dollar acquisition after another in the US, a report by data provider Dealroom draws attention to the abundant supply of academic spin-offs on the home continent. In the life sciences and deep tech sectors – where in-depth scientific research is essential – no other industry has produced as many spin-offs from universities or research institutions in recent years as the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. According to the report, 244 spinouts have been created since 2022 and a total of 2,086 biotech and pharmaceutical spinouts have been created since 1990, financed by investors with venture capital.

The industry also ranks first in terms of total financing and combined enterprise value. According to the report, university pharmaceutical and biotech spinouts have raised a total of over 38 billion dollars in capital since 1990 and have a combined valuation of over 221 billion dollars. By comparison, AI startups spun off from universities and research institutions currently have a combined value of just under 76 billion dollars. In third place is the medical technology sector with just under 29 billion dollars.

However, when looking at global M&A activity in the life sciences sector, the strength of European universities in pharmaceutical and biotech spin-offs does not come into play. Instead, it is the US that dominates M&A activity in the industry in an „overwhelming“ way, according to a report by Swiss data provider Biotechgate, which is part of the consulting firm Venture Valuation. According to the report, 91% of all life science companies acquired so far this year were based in the United States. In 2024, the geographical distribution was more diverse, with the US accounting for 81% of all life science acquisition targets as their home market. There were also large-volume acquisitions in various European countries such as Germany, the UK, and Denmark.

This year, Novartis, Sanofi, Roche, Novo Nordisk, and Merck, among others, have already made billion-dollar acquisitions in the US. In the summer, the Darmstadt-based pharmaceutical company Merck acquired Springworks Therapeutics, a cancer specialist founded in 2017 and based in Connecticut, for around 3 billion euros. It also recently announced a multi-billion dollar partnership with Boston-based start-up Valo Health to jointly develop a drug for Parkinson's disease. Under pressure from US President Donald Trump, several European pharmaceutical companies have also announced investments in the double-digit billion range this year to expand their production capacities in the United States.

Local industry associations attribute the fact that the US is significantly more attractive than Europe as a target market for large pharmaceutical acquisitions to the complex legal situation on the continent. Among other things, this means that conducting cross-border clinical trials is often still quite complicated, despite an EU-wide information system. The approval of new drugs also takes significantly longer in the EU than in other regions of the world. In 2024, it took an average of 434 days for a new drug to receive approval in the EU. According to the European pharmaceutical association EFPIA, the approval period in the US was 244 days. Once a drug is approved in the EU, the 27 health systems with their different reimbursement policies further complicate pricing.

To make the industry more competitive, the European Commission is currently working on the EU Biotech Act, which aims to accelerate market access for such innovations and improve financing conditions. In this context, the industry itself is calling for the establishment of a stock exchange specializing in biotechnology and life sciences – a „European Nasdaq,“ as Bayer's head of pharmaceuticals and EFPIA President Stefan Oelrich put it in July. The European biotech association EuropaBio has also recently endorsed this request.