To rival the US and China, a coalition of European VCs is focusing on three pillars: 1) simplifying and speeding up regulations, 2) attracting more institutional capital (e.g., pension funds) into life sciences, and 3) building a robust, NASDAQ-like public market to foster growth and retain wealth generation within Europe.

While the US leads in capital access, Ona Therapeutics' CEO highlights a key European advantage: the ability to hire top-tier scientific talent at a significantly lower cost. A scientist in Barcelona, for instance, costs much less than one in Boston but can be equally skilled and satisfied with their compensation.

Recent billion-dollar successes in the French biotech ecosystem, such as Abivax and Medincel, are largely credited to their management teams. These leaders often have significant experience working in the US and other countries. This global perspective enables them to develop assets for a worldwide market, navigate different regulatory environments, and attract international funding, breaking the mold of previously localized French biotechs.

Europe generates scientific output and IP comparable to the US but fails to translate it into successful companies at the same rate. Key challenges include a lack of deep capital markets, a lower cultural risk appetite, and a smaller talent pool, pushing many promising European biotechs to seek funding and IPOs in the US.

Unlike their US counterparts, European biotechs have less access to large venture funds. This forces a culture of extreme capital efficiency and discipline. This need to be "cleverer, smarter with less people and less money" is a defining feature and potential advantage of the European ecosystem.

France has world-class scientific talent and basic research, often originating groundbreaking IP like that behind Bluebird Bio. However, the ecosystem struggles to translate these innovations into large commercial entities due to structural issues like corporate governance and less favorable employee equity incentives, causing many innovations to be commercialized abroad.

The future biotech landscape is not US vs. China, but a "multipolar" world where savvy companies operate as "hybrid biotechs." They will selectively build bridges, cherry-picking talent, capabilities, and operational models across the US, Europe, and China to accelerate development.

The competitive pressure for European biotech to speed up clinical trials is a direct response to Chinese companies. China's ability to generate early human data quickly has raised the global bar for investment and partnering, compelling Europe to become more efficient to compete for capital.

Europe's strong science is often held back by a lack of serial entrepreneurs, difficulty in raising follow-on funding, and a localized competitive view. Curie.Bio’s model directly counters these issues by providing an experienced drug-making team, a clear funding path, and an embedded global market perspective.