A comprehensive report details strategic roadmap towards advancing regenerative medicine in Europe
Novo Nordisk Foundation (Hellerup, Denmark) releases a strategic roadmap to advance European regenerative medicine.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation, an independent enterprise foundation, has released a comprehensive report outlining a strategic pathway to position Europe as a global leader in regenerative medicine.
Published today, “A strategic roadmap towards world-leading European regenerative medicine” draws on extensive analysis of Europe’s regenerative medicine ecosystem and identifies key opportunities for developing transformative patient therapies. The report, developed in collaboration with Catenion (Berlin, Germany), calls for a decisive shift toward coordinated action, focusing resources on the hubs and programs with the greatest potential for impact.
Regenerative medicine offers the potential to revolutionize patient care by reversing or halting disease progression. Despite this promise, only a handful of therapies have gained approval over the past two decades. The report identifies critical gaps in Europe’s regenerative medicine landscape, including insufficient well-funded companies and declining private capital investment, which must be addressed to successfully translate scientific breakthroughs into therapies that cure diseases and improve patients’ lives.
“Regenerative medicine has phenomenal potential to treat, or even cure, disease. But so few therapies make it to patients, often getting stuck in development despite strong underlying science. This analysis gives us a clearer picture of what’s holding the field back – and what it will take to move it forward. Europe already has world-class research, but we need more coordinated efforts across the value chain to translate that into treatments,” shared Tanja Xenia Pedersen, Vice President, Biomedical Research at Novo Nordisk Foundation.
In 2025, the Novo Nordisk Foundation commissioned an analysis of the regenerative medicine landscape in Europe, acknowledging the need for an in-depth analysis of the current situation, including gaps and opportunities.
The report is the result of a multi-parametric analysis of European and leading global bioclusters in regenerative medicine, supported by interviews with more than 30 experts from across the field.
The roadmap explores strategies to revitalize the field by identifying trigger moments, leveraging Europe’s academic excellence, and learning from successful regional bioclusters. One key pain-point highlighted in the report is that world-class research produced by European scientists is not being effectively translated into startups or clinical programs. The analysis suggested that this gap stemmed from insufficient investment and a lack of investor confidence. One or more “trigger moments” are needed – major clinical and commercial successes that ignite confidence and investment.
The report also emphasizes another point that Europe must learn from past and present successes and failures, both within the region and globally. Rather than focusing on one-off achievements, the report suggests that long-term success should be prioritized through dedicated initiatives and incubation models that emphasize translation, manufacturability, and commercial viability from the start. Through recommendations for improving infrastructure and attracting private investment, the report aims to guide the European sector toward meaningful, coordinated action that delivers real-world impact.
Key findings from the analysis highlight the need for action guided by four strategic priorities:
- Concentrate efforts in existing high-potential hubs to achieve critical mass, aiming to integrate high-quality science with drug development thinking, entrepreneurship and intellectual property strategy.
- Embed strategic and commercial thinking from the outset to attract investors, considering critical questions in areas of manufacturing costs, platform potential and clinical size to further strengthen cases for private investors.
- Improve manufacturing efficiency and develop shared infrastructure, avoiding the need for companies to build from scratch.
- Apply rigorous strategic prioritisation across initiatives, identifying therapeutic areas of significant unmet needs and attractive business cases to increase the likelihood of both breakthrough and private investment.
“At the Novo Nordisk Foundation, we are working to help fill critical gaps – in fundamental research, translation, manufacturing, and early clinical development, in close collaboration with partners,” said Pedersen. “Now, the priority is to act on this roadmap together, so more scientific breakthroughs can ultimately benefit patients.”
