Bio-Europe 2022: The Greek Life Sciences sector continues to create huge investment opportunities

Last week, Enterprise Greece attended the annual Bio-Europe conference in Leipzig to represent the best of Greece’s Life Sciences industry.

This sector is a hugely strategic contributor to the Greek economy, one of the most crucial in fact, with its significant economic output, contribution to employment and gross added value to other industries. It also has considerable growth potential and demonstrates Greece’s progress in fostering a pro-innovation environment and its strong position as regards the sectors that will drive the world economy of the future.

With leading businesses in the pharmaceutical and medical device markets, the sector presents huge opportunities for investment, with 8% of the total private investment in R&D in Greece stemming from the pharma industry alone. Essential to this growth is our R&D infrastructure which includes internationally renowned institutes, research teams and university research groups.

There are also more than 150 Greek pharmaceutical companies developing, manufacturing and exporting pharmaceuticals around the globe. Indeed, according to Elevate Greece, Greece’s national start-up registry, about 14% of all Greek start-ups are within the biosciences sector, representing the largest and fastest growing sector in the country.

At this year’s event, we joined forces with HBio, The Hellenic BioCluster, to promote the Greek Life Sciences industry internationally, as well as to facilitate both business and research collaborations. Established in 2006, HBio is the first biosciences cluster in Greece, uniting innovation leaders in Greece in the Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, Diagnostics, Medical Devices and Specialist Services sectors.

Like Enterprise Greece, it acts as a point of contact for any stakeholders that are keen to do business or collaborate with companies, academic institutions and other organisations within Greece. As an innovation process moderator, HBio has worked tirelessly to create a vibrant and expansive ecosystem – the perfect partner for us to showcase the best of the Greek Life Sciences industry!

As one of the largest pharmaceutical conferences in the biotechnology industry, Bio-Europe aims to create international opportunities for emerging bio companies and help write the next bio scaleup success story. Greece was represented by eight of the country’s most innovative SMEs in the sector, including four start-ups who aimed to connect further with partners within the European ecosystem and wider international markets.

These SMEs ranged from a biotech innovation company, Anacalypsis Therapeutics who focus on therapeutic discovery and biomarker development for incurable brain and neurodegenerative diseases, to Oncolipsy, producing PCR-based assays used for analysis for DNA mutations or mRNA transcripts. Other businesses to fly the Greek flag at the conference included: Biopix-T, Elpen Pharamaceuticals , Galenica SA, Pharmassist Ltd, Protavio (UK) ProtATonce (GR) and ResQ. Producing high quality and safe pharma products which contribute to improving people’s live, all these businesses are doing pioneering work and showcase the ever-growing strength of the industry in Greece.

I would like to thank my colleagues, as well as the HBio team, for making the event such a great success. I’d also like to thank the eight fantastic SMEs representing Greece at the event this year, showcasing the very best Greece has to offer when it comes to investing in the Life Sciences industry. Until next year!