The US and Europe have found plenty to argue about in pharma over the years, from pricing to market access to regulatory timelines. But this week they share something: a heat warning. Record temperatures are forecast across both regions. And if you want a second forecast, try European life sciences capital. The money is not flowing the way the continent needs it to, and the people closest to it are starting to say so out loud.
Half a world away, Japan is having a milder week. It answered the same anxiety with a number instead of a letter. And the US, as it turns out, is standing in both rooms.
Europe Counts The Gap
Let's start with the number that stings. Europe now commands 7% of global life sciences venture capital. The US takes 63%. China, which used to sit behind Europe, now takes 14%. That reordering, China leapfrogging Europe, is the quiet part the coalition said out loud.
The letter came from the European Life Sciences Coalition, a group formed in February as an offshoot of the venture and private capital body Invest Europe. Its 200-plus signatories want EU leaders to treat life sciences as a strategic priority on the level of AI and defense, and they arrived with a nine-point plan: mobilize public and private capital across every stage of growth, push pension funds to allocate to the sector, build deeper European capital markets so companies stop having to scale and list abroad, and simplify the rules that slow trials and approvals.