The Power of Human Connection: BIO-Europe 2025 Returns to Vienna

In an era of uncertainty, life science companies are renewing their focus on one of the industry’s oldest and most powerful assets – human connection. As the global biotech and pharma community prepares to gather for BIO-Europe 2025 in Vienna, Austria, the tone is different from the exuberant dealmaking days of previous years. With market headwinds, funding constraints, and shifting investment priorities, the conference provides an important moment of reflection and renewal.

More than 5,700 industry leaders are expected to convene in Vienna this November to re-imagine how business gets done in biotech. Beyond partnering meetings and investor pitches, the event will focus on collaboration, creativity, and the courage to adapt; themes that resonate deeply as the industry composes the next chapter of innovation.

To learn more about what to expect, we spoke to Claire Macht, European Portfolio Director at EBD Group, and Michelle Cheesbrough, Associate Director, Program and Business Development of EBD, our BIO-Europe conference organizers.

Coffee Talk: The Return of Real Conversations

“We’ve had a lot of fun weaving the coffee shop culture and the musical legacy into the sessions – even in the wordplay for session titles,” Cheesbrough said. “We’ve built in that café culture of open discussion, with formats like the Coffee Conversations series on pharma partnering strategies with Lilly, J&J, and Novartis.”

BIO-Europe’s return to the City of Music, replete with legendary Viennese cafés, represents something bigger than a conference migration. It signals the critical importance of genuine conversation as a strategic asset. The informal chats, the serendipitous crossing-of-paths in corridors, and the simple introductions at networking receptions are once again being recognized as critical catalysts for trust and collaboration.

“Both the coffeehouse and the music themes really fit, because collaboration and creativity are at the center of what people are doing at BIO-Europe – especially now, in a tougher funding environment,” said Macht.

Talking Deals: Some Market Highlights

While fundraising this year has been challenging, there are some recent bright spots worth noting including reproductive medicine and women’s health specialist ReproNovo, gut microbiome experts MRM Health and international VC investor Andera Partners.

ReproNovo raised $65 million in a Series A round led by Jeito Capital, co-led by AXA IM Alts and founding investor M Ventures, plus Ysios Capital and ALSA Ventures. Much to the joy of many investors, ReproNovo is working on novel approaches to address prevalent gaps in the reproductive medicine and women’s health space. Initially the Lausanne-based company has started its Phase II clinical development of RPN-001 (leflutrozole), a novel oral aromatase inhibitor to treat infertility in men with low serum testosterone. ReproNovo is also due to begin Phase II clinical trials with RPN-002 (nolasiban), another oral first-in-disease and first-in-class molecular compound being evaluated in two indications: improve success rates in embryo implantation and manage symptoms of adenomyosis, a common uterine condition in which endometrial tissue grows into the uterine wall, often causing severe menstrual bleeding, pain, and difficulties conceiving.

In more recent positive investment news, Andera Partners reinvested in Munich-based Tubulis, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialist, which recently closed a €308 million Series C round, underscoring Andera’s belief in the management team and ADC technologies. Another ADC company, Adcytherix of Marseille, recently attracted Andera’s attention and closed a €105 million Series A round co-led by Andera. Closing out Andera’s recent positive finance and deals news, BioDiscovery 6 portfolio company ImCheck Therapeutics, a Marseille-based next-generation immuno-oncology therapies company, was acquired by Ipsen in a deal valued up to €1 billion, with an upfront payment of €350 million.

Adapting to a Changed Landscape

The market turmoil of the past two years, marked by tightened capital flows, mergers of necessity, and clinical pipeline reprioritization, has forced companies and investors to re-evaluate where value lies.

“If we look at some of the biggest, most newsworthy stories in biotech and pharma that we are bringing to the stage at BIO-Europe — the real-world deals and strategies driving the next wave of innovation,” said Cheesbrough, “we’re seeing new funding momentum with companies like SpliceBio and ReproNovo, and funders like the Gates Foundation stepping up to jumpstart areas that have been chronically underfunded, such as women’s health.“

“While large companies are streamlining internal programs, those coffeehouse conversations in Vienna are about deals that are happening — and new models like NewCos are providing creative avenues to keep promising science moving forward,” she added.

One Vienna-based company taking a new approach to moving science forward is QUANTRO Therapeutics, a transcriptomic drug discovery and R&D company focused on building a highly innovative pipeline of modulators, inhibitors or degraders of transcription factors, transcriptional regulators and cell signaling targets.

QUANTRO recently announced the extension of its 2022 collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim for a further two years, following the successful completion of a major high-throughput screening campaign and the identification of functionally validated hits for difficult to drug transcription factor targets. Under the agreement, QUANTRO has already received payments and is eligible to receive further milestone payments up to €500M.

Privately held Belgian company Neuvasq Biotechnologies is looking to create value through dual tracks: generating near-term revenue from ophthalmology partnerships and building leadership in neurology. Denis Bedoret, Executive Director, will be at the conference to talk about the company’s first-in-class Wnt surrogate antibodies which offer the potential for the first true disease-modifying approach for blood brain barrier dysfunction in a variety of neurological indications.

Coming back to the theme of music, “composing the future of biotech” is the idea behind this year’s conference, Cheesbrough said. It plays on Vienna’s musical heritage but also reflects how, in a time of uncertainty, the industry is finding resilience and redefining how we innovate.

In a symphony of collaboration and finance, microbiome-based therapeutics specialist MRM Health, headquartered in Ghent, closed a Series B round of €55 million led by French pharmaceutical group Biocodex with new investors, including German-based ATHOS and BNP Paribas Fortis Private Equity to complete a Phase 2b clinical trial for its lead program MH002 in patients suffering from mild-to-moderate ulcerative colitis. Furthermore, MRM and Biocodex are entering a strategic collaboration to develop both novel therapeutic assets and scalable manufacturing capabilities for Live Biotherapeutic Products (LBPs).

On the back of another composition with a €4 million pre-series A financing by the German Agency for Disruptive Innovation, SPRIND, Munich-based life science company AATec Medical will attend the conference to talk about its first product candidate, ATL-105. ATL-105 uses a novel inhaled formulation of recombinant alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, such as non-CF-bronchiectasis, and other respiratory diseases.

The tone expected to radiate from this year’s conference is pragmatic and optimistic, organizers Macht and Cheesbrough said. Vienna will showcase how adversity has sparked ingenuity. Aachen-based pharma services provider PL BioScience exemplifies the spark of ingenuity with its globally unique development and production of patented, gamma-irradiated Human Platelet Lysate (HPL). HPL is an innovative, human-derived cell culture supplement used to support the growth and expansion of cells in research and clinical development, particularly in cell therapy, stem cell, and regenerative medicine.

The takeaway: expect to hear conference buzz about how innovative science and business models are being shaped by an adaptive network of interdependent innovators as much as by market dynamics.

Resilience: Finding Strength in Connection

Resilience has become the industry’s new currency. In a market defined by volatility – geopolitical tensions, supply-chain disruptions, and capital droughts – the ability to endure and evolve depends as much on relationships as on balance sheets.

This year’s BIO-Europe agenda reflects that shift with sessions emphasizing strategic patience, sustainable partnerships, and cultural alignment – the softer, long-term factors that distinguish enduring companies from those chasing short-term gains.

Rentschler Biopharma, an international CDMO founded in 1872, is one company that has clearly been resilient and successful for generations, guiding many early-stage drug development companies through the clinical trials odyssey and international regulatory approvals journey. The company recently celebrated progress at its new buffer media station, currently under construction at Rentschler’s headquarters in Laupheim. This project represents the largest single investment in the company’s history at the German site. The event included placing a time capsule at the new facility bearing the message “Together We Build” – a symbol of shared responsibility for the future of healthcare.

Additionally, in October, Rentschler’s U.S. subsidiary was awarded Manufacturer of the Year for Central Massachusetts across all industries. In her nomination, U.S. State Senator Becca Rausch noted that collaborating with state and local organizations, Rentschler has developed a pipeline for local workers to begin careers in life sciences and biotech manufacturing. The award was a strong endorsement and certainly helped promote Rentschler Biopharma’s business in Milford with a new state-of-the-art production line now fully operational.

Resilience through collaboration is an important mantra for Galimedix Therapeutics, which is developing small molecules to treat neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s (AD). Alexander Gebauer, Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Galimedix, will be at the conference to strengthen and make new connections with potential partners, venture capitalists and strategics, with a focus on advancing lead compound GAL-101 into Phase 2 testing for AD. The company already has a strategic collaboration with ophthalmology player, Théa Open Innovation, which is funding the development of GAL-101 in dry AMD/geographic atrophy. The eye drop formulation is currently in Phase 2 for this indication. The oral formulation of GAL-101 recently completed a Phase 1 trial demonstrating an excellent safety and pharmacokinetic profile, as well as effectively crossing the blood-brain barrier, supporting moving forward in AD.

Vienna’s setting reinforces this durability theme. Known for its resilience through centuries of change, the city mirrors the spirit of the industry it will host – an ecosystem that reinvents itself through connections. As Gebauer put it in the lead-up to the event: “Resilience isn’t about waiting out the storm; it’s about finding new ways to move forward together, regardless of the weather.”

The message is clear: the path to recovery and new growth in biotech won’t come from isolation or financial optimization. It will come from shared strength – aligning scientific vision with human spirit and collaboration.

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