Guide
Europea n Biotechnolog y Science &
Industry
Guide
© BIOCOM AG, Berlin 2025
European Biotechnology Science & Industry Guide 2025 (Vol. 15)
Published by:
BIOCOM Interrelations GmbH
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In cooperation with the European Biotechnology Network www.european-biotechnology.net
Editor: Andreas Mietzsch
Executive Producer: Andreas Macht
Production: Martina Willnow
Graphic Design: Michaela Reblin
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ISBN: 978-3-928383-95-0
Biotechnology is the magic key
An editorial in a European company guide with a look at the global political situation? That’s very unusual. But we live in strange times. On the one hand, we enjoy freedom, peace and historically unrivalled prosperity. On the other hand, we feel threatened. Not so much in the short term and in our personal environment, but noticeably. Democracy is suddenly perceived as exhausting. In addition, there is the impression that it is mostly only crazy dictators and simplifiers or rather trivial things that cause a splash, while the real problems are not being tackled. What about the threat to our biosphere from too much CO2 in the air? We are facing a natural disaster of almost biblical proportions and what do we do? Half the world is forced to invest its scarce resources in armaments to defend itself from an atavistic would-be tsar. And the USA is now governed by a man who can be described as ‘erratic’, which is already a sign of great self-restraint.
Is the risk aversion and fear of loss of the ageing population in many European countries behind the omnipresent suppression of the necessary? Or is it the dumbing down – ahem – blinding of the younger generation by the Unsocial Media? Or both? I recently read in a letter to the editor on the political situation: ‘No hope, nowhere!’ However, I would like to strongly disagree with this. Mankind already has all the means at its disposal to turn the tide. The only question is whether everything has to get much worse before the shackles of the past can be cast off enough for us to turn our attention to the future. And that brings me to the crux of the matter: the future can only consist of the masses of people adapting to the conditions of our planet again! Economising in cycles and consuming only as much as our ‘spaceship Earth’ can provide. The key to this is biotechnology – something that has unfortunately been largely forgotten. It has already established itself as the central technology in the pharmaceutical sector, but CRISPR/Cas and the New Genomic Techniques (NGT) are not being let off the leash, especially in the EU. One day in the not-too-distant-future, however, this will/must happen, and then we will have climate protection, growth, a unique selling point and a future all in one.
Biotechnologists are incorrigible optimists – otherwise we would be doing something different, faster and more profitable. And although the general conditions in Europe are not always the best (see above), the biotechnology sector in Europe is very successful and is growing in many places even against the trend. In this book, dear readers, you will find many optimistic messages. Companies large and small are focussing on biotechnology and life sciences. However, biotechnological research and later the transfer of the results to consumers require freedom, peace and a lot of money. But what will happen if the transatlantic community of values crumbles? What will be left of the free markets? As optimists, however, we continue undeterred because we are convinced that we are doing the right job.
With this in mind, I hope you all enjoy reading this 15th European Biotechnology Guide published with enthusiasm by BIOCOM®
Andreas Mietzsch President of the European Biotechnology Network
european-biotechnology.net
Let’s save the planet!
Biodiversity loss, climate apocalypse, billions of people in turmoil. New strategies are desperately needed. Biotechnology creates confidence and solutions. The European Biotechnology Network is a non-profit organisation that aims to facilitate cooperation between all professionals in biotechnology and life sciences on the European continent. Find out about (free) membership on our website www.european-biotechnology.net
Biotechnology: From green opportunity to wallflower
In politics, priorities can shift rapidly - much to the chagrin of the economy, which depends on longterm strategic planning. A notable example occurred in 2010, when the Renewable Energy Directive set the target of achieving 10% biofuel usage by 2020. However, support for biodiesel and bioethanol was swiftly abandoned in favour of emobility, culminating in the decision to ban new registrations of cars with combustion engines –including those using climate-neutral fuels – after 2035. A similar policy reversal is now unfolding under European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (EPP). Her first legislative period (20192024) was characterised by the Green Deal, which emphasised regulatory measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions – particularly CO 2 – and a shift from fossil fuels to renewable resources as part of a bio(mass)-based bioeconomy. But in light of geopolitical tensions, particularly Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, von der Leyen has pivoted toward policies aimed at making Europe more competitive, more self-sufficient in raw materials as well as energy and more resilient to crises – at the expense of the Green Deal. This shift could have a negative impact on biotechnology, a key cross-sectoral and enabling technology.
in Europe and hinted at a future EU biotech law. The strategic paper outlines how to solve the challenges that the biotech and biomanufacturing sector in the EU faces. These include accelerating technology transfer to market, reducing regulatory complexity, improving access to financing, attracting skilled workers, eliminating value chain obstacles, enhancing IP protection, boosting public acceptance of new technologies, and strengthening economic security. Vestager’s EU initiative for biotechnology and bioproduction proposes several measures “to address these challenges in a timely manner”.
Leveraging research and boosting innovation: To help identify drivers and bottlenecks of innovation and technology adoption, the Commission ordered a study to investigate the EU’s position compared to other global leaders in industrial biotechnology. On top, the Commission is looking at how to speed up the development and use of biobased innovations within the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation and Synthetic Biology Accelerator (EU IBISBA) as a digital hub and service network for the sector.
European lip service
Credible studies indicate that the 2015 Paris Agreement target of permanently limiting global warming to 2°C (or better yet 1.5°C) above the 1850-1900 preindustrial average temperature was exceeded for the first time in 2024, reaching 1.67°C. Current forecasts project 2.5°C and above for the year 2100.
In March 2024, the previous EU Commission, represented by Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, stated that biotechnology could help counteract both climate change and the increasing shortage of raw materials. As part of an ‘EU Biotech and Biomanufacturing Initiative’, she then presented eight measures designed to speed up technology transfer
Stimulating market demand: For bio-based products to gain a competitive edge, they want to assess their environmental impact compared to fossil-based alternatives. To ensure fair assessment, the European Commission will review the evaluation criteria for both fossil- and bio-based products, incorporating methods for carbon storage in construction materials. To accelerate the substitution of fossil feedstock and to stimulate the demand and market uptake of bio-manufactured products, the Commission will conduct an in-depth impact assessment on the feasibility of biobased content requirements for specific product categories and in public procurement, while also eliminating subsidies making the fossil-based industry more cost-effective. Furthermore, the Commission said it will explore how bio-manufactured non-food products can enhance their market positioning through improved labeling.
Streamlining regulatory pathways: The Commission has committed to assessing how EU legislation and its implementation can be streamlined to shorten the time-to-market for biotech innovations. A separate
EuropaBio
study is set to lay the foundations for a potential EU Biotech Act. To further support the sector, the Commission plans to establishing an EU Biotech Hub, designed to help biotech companies navigate regulatory complexities and access resources to scale up. Furthermore, so-called regulatory sandboxes are being considered. These controlled environments would allow novel solutions to be tested under the supervision of regulators for a limited amount of time, facilitating faster market entry.
Fostering public and private investments: The EU names several existing financing instruments to support biotechnology and biomanufacturing such as Horizon Europe; the Innovation Fund; and STEP. To foster the development and scale-up of innovations with the potential to create new markets, a key policy objective is to address specific challenges for biotech and biomanufacturing in the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Work Programme 2025. Further- Source:
more, the Commission has initiated a study to identify barriers and propose measures to support the consolidation of investment funds, stock exchanges and post-trading infrastructure. This effort aims to enable the development of the necessary scale, enhance the knowledge base, create deeper pools of liquidity and help lower the cost of financing for high-growth companies.
Strengthening biotech-related skills: According to the initiative presented by Vestager, large-scale and regional skills partnerships could play a key role in providing upskilling and reskilling opportunities in biotech and biomanufacturing. The Commission will explore the creation of a dedicated large-scale partnership for industry players in these fields, with potential co-financing through the Blueprint Alliances initiative under the Erasmus+ programme.
Updating standards: The Commission has stated that it will promote the elaboration and revision of Euro -
Fig. 1: EuropaBio’s vision of a pro-biotech EU policy approach.
Name ›
Address/P.O. Box ›
Postal Code/City › Country ›
Contact Person › Telephone › Email › Website › Social Media ›
Number of Employees › Founded (year) › Type of Laboratory
Areas of Activity ›
QUANTRO Therapeutics GmbH
Dr.-Bohr-Gasse 7 1030 Vienna Austria Dr Michael Bauer +43-122-66001 contactus@quantro-tx.com www.quantro-tx.com
18 2019
Research and Discovery
| Time resolved transcriptomics
| Measure transcriptional dynamics | R&D pipeline and discovery platform
| Drugging previously undruggable transcription factors
External › Collaborations
| Boehringer Ingelheim Oncology
| Institute for Molecular Pathology IMP, Vienna, Austria
QUANTRO Makes Transcription Factors Druggable
QUANTRO Therapeutics’ proprietary technology, the precise and time-resolved, direct quantitative measure of transcriptional dynamics at any point in time, is defining a new state of the art in transcriptomic drug discovery. We have successfully established a pioneering transcriptomic drug discovery platform technology, which unleashes the potential of drugging previously undruggable transcription factor targets.
Our platform has been validated on >10 different oncology and inflammation targets, is currently running at a capacity of approx. 100´000 compounds tested in our high-throughput dual target screening. Taking drug discovery to a next level we established the first 10-target multiplex assay, moving from individual target screening to compound library profiling for multiple targets simultaneously.
QUANTRO’s technology has been successfully used in several HTS campaigns and created functionally validated and proprietary hit libraries against several key oncogenic transcription factors, thereby successfully building an innovative drug discovery pipeline for our own drug development programmes and our strategic partner Boehringer Ingelheim Oncology.
The Transcription Factor Challenge
Due to the complexity of protein-protein-DNA interactions, the investigation of transcription factors requires cell-based assays. Many of these targets are intrinsically disordered proteins, thereby escape traditional discovery or rational design approaches, hence they have been and still are largely considered undruggable.
Consequently, the discovery of transcription factor targeting drugs has been difficult and transcription factor related therapies remain an unmet medical need for patients, representing untapped opportunity for innovative drug discovery.
QUANTRO Defines a New State of the Art in Transcriptomic Drug Discovery
RNAseq based methods have been used for transcriptomic discovery; however, this technology is limited to quantification of mRNA abundance in absence of understanding transcriptional dynamics. Changes of transcriptional dynamics occur within minutes; therefore, primary transcriptional effects and their molecular targets remain invisible to RNAseq based methods. Reporter assays using green flourescent protein are also too slow and only cover a mixture of primary, secondary and distant pathway effects.
Contrary to these limitations, QUANTRO’s transcriptomic technology precisely measures time-resolved changes of transcriptional dynamics, at any point in time. We capture direct primary on-target effects and differentiate these from downstream signalling-pathway effects.
By matching transcriptional “fingerprints” derived from acute degradation of transcription factor proteins with corresponding “fingerprints” triggered by small molecules, we successfully identify drugs targeting previously undruggable transcription factors.
Our first-in-class oncology pipeline focuses on “undruggable” targets using our time-resolved functional transcriptomics discovery platform to identify modulators, activators, and inhibitors of gene transcription with unmatched precision. We are successfully building our proprietary R&D pipeline and continue advancing our strategic collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim.
Backed by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) and Evotec as SEED investors, QUANTRO pursues a dual strategy of venture financing and strategic partnering to advance our innovative first-in-class pipeline towards clinical development.