Lu Rahman shares some of the stand-put momenta at this year’s LSX World Congress in Lisbon.  

LSX World Congress Europe has always been a favourite of the DDW team. Bringing together networking, investment, pharma, start-ups and venture capital, the event offers insight into the workings of wider life science funding and investment, as well market opportunities and challenges. This year’s event took place on 25-26 March at the Lisbon Congress Centre – a first as previous events have been held in London. It was integrated with Informa’s Spring Innovation Week, underpinning this area’s relevance to the life science sector. Figures from the two events state that over 5,000 delegates from around 50 countries made the trip to Lisbon.  

There were several standout talks. Cody Powers, Partner, ZS Associates, brought attendees to the State of Biotech Markets: A Forward-looking View talk. This synopsis of the markets, the impact of global policy and discussion of the China biotech market, set the tone for much of the event. Powers noted the financial downturn of the previous year and that while Q4 had indeed shown a rebound, it wasn’t enough to cover the deficit. Powers also acknowledged funding is more challenging and has been stuck for a while. 

The panel session Investment, Innovation and Influence: Reimagining Europe’s Role in Global Life Sciences, highlighted some key areas of interest such as where in the world does your investment story fit and what are investors buying. The fact that investors want a clear value proposition and story was discussed as was the importance of building a relationship with investors even if they don’t invest immediately.   

A stand-out discussion came via Debra Yu, Partner and COO, Panacea Capital, and Sue Yao, Co-Head, Business Development, KLUS PHARMA | KEUM-BIOTECH. They discussed China – as an innovator, its government enabled bioparks. Permissive regulatory change, the growth of Newcos and what these mean for investment, were also covered in the talk: China Investment & Deal Opportunities: Capital, Partnerships and Licensing in the World’s Second-Largest Economy. 

A key element of this LSX event was the discussion and focus on cross-sector convergence. Covering the spectrum of life science markets – biotech, pharma, medtech and healthtech – the event has the ability to cover broader issues relating to the overall healthcare sector. One interesting element of the event was examining the role of biotech, data science and diagnostics integrate into the next generation of healthcare delivery. 

Discussions were also had on how biotech VCs are actually making decisions in today’s market. The market has meaningfully improved since late 2024 but geopolitics is still very much at play. The current funding environment is showing green shoots and more capital is being allocated within the growth-type stage.  

  

From DDW Volume 27 – Issue 3, Summer 2026 – Read the digital issue here