BIO-Europe partnering: Australian biotech companies share their experiences

Last week nearly 6000 people from more than 3200 companies gathered in Vienna for the annual BIO-Europe partnering conference. Over three days, more than 32,000 meetings were facilitated between biotechs, pharma, venture capital, and industry service providers, with participants from more than 60 countries taking full advantage of their time in the Austrian capital to renew existing contacts and forge new ones.

Among those seeking partnerships at BIO-Europe were a contingent of biotechs from Australia. A small but active hub for innovation, Australian firms came to the event with variable partnering goals but common high hopes for establishing the connections required to drive their business forward.

We spoke to Australian companies at BIO-Europe to understand their experience on the floor in Vienna and the challenges of developing partnerships on the other side of the world.

Preparing to raise money and pitch pharma partners at BIO-Europe

Australia’s biotechnology industry is valued at more than $17 billion and expected to grow to $51 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5%. Industry group Ausbiotech reports that the country has particular strengths in therapeutics, regenerative medicine, and digital health, and world-class clinical capabilities with around 1000 new clinical trials launched every year. Reflecting that diverse landscape, the Australian companies present at BIO-Europe this year arrived with a variety of partnering goals.

Ternarx is a Melbourne-based company developing a pipeline of targeted protein degrader therapies. A spinout company from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), Ternarx received a $AUD 15 million ($9.7 million) grant from the Australian government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and was at BIO-Europe laying the groundwork in advance of a planned capital raise in 2026.

“It’s really about pitching where we are at the moment and asking for feedback,” said Ternarx chief executive officer (CEO) Joanne Boag. “It’s about collecting that feedback, making those contacts, and then building that into the investment case going into next year.”

Finances were also on the mind of Eye Co Pty. Ltd. CEO and Managing Director Peter Abrahamson. The Sydney biotech is currently in the clinic testing fludrocortisone acetate in the treatment of geographic atrophy associated with dry age-related macular degeneration. At BIO-Europe, the company was seeking funding to complete their phase 2 trial, support the phase 3 trial, and move the therapy towards commercialization. 

At least one Australian company, though, arrived in Austria with a product that was already approved and on the market in Australia and Canada, and was seeking partners to commercialize the therapy in Europe and other geographies. Glutagen is based in Melbourne and markets a caricain enzyme therapy to address celiac disease. Commercialized as GluteGuard, patients take a single tablet before eating a meal that might contain gluten to reduce the occurrence of symptoms related to inadvertent gluten ingestion. 

Glutagen Chief Revenue Officer Stuart Jebb explained that, with a product already on the market, he was at BIO-Europe to connect with pharma partners who would license the therapy in new regions. “We’re getting a lot of interest from both the big end of town, like big pharma companies that play in the generic space and have over-the-counter divisions, and then we get interest from the smaller companies that are specifically focused on the country that they’re located in and have experience with consumer health products.”

Securing BIO-Europe partnering meetings? No worries, mate

Jebb had few issues securing partnering meetings at BIO-Europe adding, “I find the European community is very welcoming to Australian people. I’ve never run into any issue from us being Australia.” This perspective was common across the Australian biotechs we spoke to.

Victoria’s Amplia Therapeutics develops small-molecule focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitors to amplify chemotherapy therapies in solid tumors, with a specific focus on pancreatic cancer. The company is in the clinic with a phase 2 trial of its AMP945 asset for pancreatic cancer underway, a phase 1b/2 trial of the same asset in combination with folfirinox in progress, and another trial targeting ovarian cancer in planning stages. Chief Operating Officer Rhiannon Jones confirmed she was able to secure many of the meetings she hoped to have but added that partnering requires more than just showing up at an event.

“It helps if you have engaged with them previously or you engage by email,” she said. “We came to BIO-Europe Spring earlier in the year and this has actually been a really good follow-up. We’ve picked up a few of those conversations that were going well, they were interested in seeing more data and so we’ve been able to bring more data to this meeting.”

Peter Pursey, CEO of PresSura Neuro, said his company had been very well received. PresSura Neuro is developing therapeutic solutions to reduce the effects of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and concussions, including both chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and post-concussion syndrome (PCS). In an area where there are currently no U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved medications, PresSura Neuro is now three-quarters of the way through a phase 2 trial in 16 hospitals in Australia and the UK. The trial is expected to conclude in the first quarter of 2026.

“Look when you get close to a phase 2 and you really want a license with the tier one, two, and three companies, you want to test what their thinking is,” Pursey explained. “I like to know in advance where people stand…if there are things that we need to prepare for and think about, then it gives us about nine months to do that. I think it’s just normal, sensible preparation.”

He added that PresSura Neuro liked the BIO-Europe event. “We thought there was a mix of companies from all over the world here. When you go to [the BIO International Convention] it’s a little more U.S. centric and so when you come here you get a bigger variety of companies from Asia and Europe, as well as the Americans.”

BIO-Europe partnering is attractive to Aussie biotechs

Pursey was not alone among Australian biotechs in declaring a preference for the European partnering event. Others also pointed to the more manageable size of the event compared to the U.S. BIO meeting, and the availability of pharma and venture executives in Vienna.

Ternarx’s Boag said this was her second time attending BIO-Europe and highlighted the size of the event – big, but not too big – as a major plus for smaller biotechs.

“BIO U.S. is obviously a bigger meeting,” she said, “but for getting meetings with pharma, I found this to be a better meeting. I think it’s easier for smaller companies to get cut through here rather than at the U.S. conference.”

Jebb of Glutagen noted how busy he had been at BIO-Europe this year and cited the value of the format in facilitating meetings for his Australian company. “This event in particular is very well organized,” he said. “I’ve had three days of just back-to-back-to back meetings, and it just runs really efficiently.”

Far from being a disadvantage, Australian companies found that there were some real advantages on the table for potential partners from Europe. Pursey, for example, pointed to Australia’s age and disease profile that is very similar to that of Europe and the U.S., Abrahamson mentioned the cost advantages of pursuing innovation in Australia where there is a 43.5% tax credit for R&D activities, and the regulatory credibility of Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) was cited a strong argument in favor of working with Aussie biotechs.

As attractive as the country is for outside biopharma investment, for the local companies there is not only a desire but a commercial need to go global. Jebb explained that Australia’s relatively small local market drives an international partnering approach. “We’re a 25 million population market, we’re just a tiny market,” he said, “We’re such on a smaller scale compared to what it is here [in Europe].”

This small-scale impacts not only commercial realities for therapies on the market but also access to capital. Despite Australian private pension savings and investment funds (known locally as superannuation funds) being allowed to invest in riskier market segments such as biotechnology, relatively little has so far been invested by those funds in the sector and where investments have been made there have been few returns. As one biotech CEO put it, “raising money in Australia is an uphill battle” and so events like BIO-Europe become critical to achieving a development path forward.

Next stops: London, San Francisco, and Lisbon

Partnering events like BIO-Europe are strategically important for biotechs and out-licensors like the Australian firms we met in Vienna. However, BIO-Europe is just one stop on an international partnering journey that sees its next stops in the U.K. and the U.S.

For many Aussie innovators, the Jefferies Global Healthcare Conference in London beginning 17 November is the next stop on their partnering world tour. More than 3500 people are expected for the event at the Waldorf Hilton and Australian CEOs are amongst the finance-focused attendees from around the world.  Some six weeks after Jefferies, though, is the traditional high-profile kick-off to the biopharma year in San Franciso, the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference. The mid-January event will see pharma, biotech, and investment leaders converge in California to meet, network, and announce new collaborations, partnerships, and acquisitions.  Then, come March, BIO-Europe Spring will see out-licensors return to Europe, this time to Lisbon, Portugal, where nearly 4000 decision makers will attend the smaller sibling of the autumn BIO-Europe event.

For Australian biotechs seeking development partners, out-licensing deals, and investors, the frequent long flights are the cost of doing business, and the face-to-face contact is essential for driving Down Under biotech innovation forward. 

“Being in Australia, on the other side of the world, a small company no one’s ever heard trying to do the cold outreach? It just doesn’t resonate with people,” said Jebb. “When you’re in front of them in person, you get to meet them. They get to know you, and you get to tell the story. It’s just a much more efficient and effective process to finding these partners.”