Biotechnology in Portugal – 20 years of learning to undertake
In 2002 there were as many as a dozen biotech people in Portugal, if ten employees, many managed in part with no background with much less than a half of venture capital, a lot of specialist investors — which didn’t even exist in the country. Most of these micro-enterprises were service providers, and no modern Portuguese biotechnology product could be seen on the market.
20 years of society have passed and, courtesy of wars and wars, even the most beloved sectors of society have realized the crucial importance of science-based innovation in fields such as Health or Food – precisely the same in which Biotechnology is most active.
The P-BIO website now has 41 members; between 2019 and 2021, the 200M Fund, for example, participated in investment operations totaling around €22 million in biotechnology companies linked to Portugal. State funds such as Portugal Ventures have invested on a similar scale, and some private ones also more modestly. At least three Portuguese biotechnology companies were acquired by foreign counterparts. There are some international, specific, specific names, with other products that are not placed on the market, even specific names, although a few are identified. In recent years, companies applying biotechnology have been investing in areas where Portugal may have arguments from the start — namely in the Blue (bio)Economy.
There are clearly positive developments, but is this a success story? Good entrepreneurs use the word success — and also the word failure — with caution. They are both relevant resources to instantaneous, skewed portraits of reality. But where would we be – for example, the young recent PhDs who started the business years ago – when we imagined Biotechnology Portugal in 2022?
Portugal has progressed a lot in Biotechnology, but others have progressed more – especially if we consider Biotechnology, its much more advanced and disruptive component. The comparison with similarly sized countries like Belgium, Sweden or Austria is overwhelming. We don’t have products developed by Portuguese start-ups on the market, not even close; many specialist companies – or the equivalent of a small US investment series. Possibly, at the moment, there will be no Portuguese biotechnology with a valuation above €20 million.
What doesn’t go well or will have to be improved will not have much to do with people’s ability or any cultural or hereditary fate. Specific aspects have been identified as decisive technologies in Portugal – from aspects of capital formation to academic relationships or attitudes towards risk. Among those that are less talked about and less worked on, I highlight two.
The first has to do with what happens in laboratories, for example in universities, before companies are formed. Historically, Portuguese biotechnology companies have been founded too early, when science, however good it may be, is still at too high a risk level. These companies were financed in low amounts by small specialized investors, with no capacity to make the projects that give a qualitative leap. Two or three years and a million or two euros later, these companies fail or, worse, survive without much progress. It is necessary to review or reinforce the funding of “proto-business” R&D projects before they leave the academic system, so that they leave it stronger. A recent initiative InnoValley Proof of Concept Fund, in Oeiras, is a promising example. More is needed.
The second aspect has to do with the ways in which entrepreneurship is promoted — from teaching the subject in schools and universities to financial support programs.
Entrepreneurship is a broad concept and there are many types of business. What it takes to know and do to launch a science-based company is different from the skills needed to manage, say, a consultant, or a Marketplaceor a platform games. Product and capital development cycles, for example, are different. The investor profile, approach to the market, type of talent and importance of intellectual property are completely different. We need to keep this in mind if we want to create a context that is more conducive to the success of bioentrepreneurs. Never Because it’s too late for us to be what we used to be…
Founding Partner, Clinical Research Ventures
Guest Professor, NOVA-SBE