Europe’s drug research share has fallen to 31% from 43% in 1990

Forbion, a Netherlands-based venture firm and one of Europe’s largest biotech investors, raised €2.3 billion (about $2.6 billion) in the largest life-sciences venture fundraise in Europe this year, the company said. The new raise brings Forbion’s total assets under management to about €7.5 billion ($8.5 billion), up 50% from two years ago.

About 60% of the money came from European investors and 40% from North American ones, Forbion said. Named backers include Dutch pension managers MN and PGGM, Germany’s KfW Capital, and Eli Lilly. Forbion invests in life-sciences companies primarily in Europe and North America across a range of therapeutic areas.

The raise comes as European drug-industry leaders have publicly warned about the region’s competitiveness. Last month, the chairs of nine drugmakers — including AstraZeneca, GSK, Novartis, Roche Holding and Sanofi — published an open letter warning that Europe is losing the race for pharmaceutical investment. Europe’s share of global drug research has fallen to 31% from 43% in 1990, the chairs said, as China, among others, is aggressively building up its biotech capacity. The signatories are pushing for European governments to spend more on medicines.

The venture-capital gap is even larger. European funds hold 7% of the global life-sciences venture market, compared with 63% for the U.S., according to the European Life Sciences Coalition, of which Forbion is a member. Of 67 European Union-based biotech companies that went public in the past six years, nearly all listed outside the EU, the coalition says.

“There’s a lot of debate about making available more capital [in Europe],” said Sander Slootweg, Forbion’s co-founder and managing partner. “What we’re seeing here are the first signs of that.”

Other European biotech deals are underway. Paris-based Jeito Capital, a biotech-focused firm, closed a $1.2 billion fund in March, the largest European venture raise through the second quarter, according to PitchBook. London-based Isomorphic Labs, which uses AI to design drugs, raised $2.1 billion in May.

Still, European venture fundraising overall posted its weakest annual total in a decade in 2025, PitchBook said, and this year’s recovery is favoring established players such as Forbion instead of helping seed a new crop of investors.