The Portuguese Bioindustry Association, P-BIO, has unveiled its strategic roadmap for the country's life sciences sector, laying out a bold and long-term vision under the title BIO-HEALTH 2030. The document outlines how Portugal can position itself as a major European hub for innovation in biotechnology, health technologies, and advanced therapies over the next five years.
The strategy, presented at a national conference in Lisbon attended by industry leaders, policymakers, and academic researchers, focuses on four core pillars: innovation, investment, internationalisation, and integration. According to P-BIO, Portugal has a unique opportunity to leverage its scientific talent, favourable geographic location, and growing entrepreneurial ecosystem to become a competitive force in Europe’s life sciences landscape.
One of the key objectives of BIO-HEALTH 2030 is to attract sustained private investment into Portuguese biotech startups and scale-ups. While the country has made notable progress in recent years, with a rise in seed and Series A funding rounds, the gap between early-stage support and late-stage financing remains a concern. P-BIO has called for the creation of new financing instruments, including dedicated biotech venture capital funds and government-backed co-investment programmes to help companies bridge this divide.
Another major focus of the strategy is to increase the international visibility of Portuguese life sciences. P-BIO aims to support companies in entering new markets, building international partnerships, and participating in global value chains. The association plans to coordinate trade missions, facilitate EU grant applications, and strengthen relationships with biotech clusters in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and North America. It has also stressed the importance of harmonising Portuguese regulation with EU frameworks to ensure smoother market access.
BIO-HEALTH 2030 also emphasises the need for stronger connections between academia and industry. While Portugal boasts a highly educated scientific workforce and a strong tradition of biomedical research, many innovations developed in laboratories fail to reach commercial application. P-BIO wants to address this by promoting technology transfer, encouraging spin-outs from universities, and reforming incentives for researchers to collaborate with the private sector. It is also advocating for changes in public procurement practices to allow hospitals and health services to adopt locally developed solutions more easily.
The roadmap additionally includes recommendations for developing Portugal’s industrial base in life sciences. This includes investment in biomanufacturing infrastructure, support for digital health platforms, and efforts to train workers in specialised fields such as cell and gene therapy, regulatory affairs, and data science. The creation of regional biotech hubs outside Lisbon and Porto is also part of the vision, with Coimbra, Braga, and Évora identified as priority areas for ecosystem development.
P-BIO has committed to monitoring the strategy’s progress through annual reports and by creating a dedicated task force to coordinate its implementation. The association will work closely with the Ministry of Economy and Maritime Affairs, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, and the Ministry of Health to ensure cross-government alignment.
BIO-HEALTH 2030 reflects growing momentum in Portugal’s life sciences sector. Over the past decade, the country has become home to dozens of emerging biotech companies, several contract research organisations, and a small but vibrant group of biopharma manufacturers. Notably, international companies such as AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have expanded their presence in Portugal, drawn by its skilled workforce, improving regulatory environment, and growing innovation infrastructure.
Industry observers see the strategy as both a roadmap and a signal. It aims to give investors confidence that Portugal is committed to long-term sector growth, while offering policymakers a set of actionable priorities. While challenges remain, including bureaucratic complexity, limited access to scale-up capital, and competition for talent, P-BIO believes that the country is well positioned to become a meaningful player in Europe’s biotech future if it acts decisively.