What are the key takeaways from this Beyond Biotech episode?

Key insights include: **Content track expansion:** Bio Europe grows from three to seven tracks in 2026, adding regulatory affairs, clinical development, biomanufacturing, and an expanded plenary "big picture" series. Companies should audit which C-suite roles—CSO, CMO, COO—now have relevant programming and send those leaders rather than defaulting to BD-only delegations as in previous years.; **Content-only registration pass:** A new pass tier targets professionals in clinical, regulatory, and manufacturing functions who have no need for 30-minute partnering meetings but benefit from strategic discussions. Companies should evaluate this lower-barrier entry point for specialists who previously had no reason to attend, expanding their organization's presence without full partnering costs.; **Strategic attendance timing for small biotechs:** Early-stage companies should align Bio Europe attendance with specific internal milestones—fundraising rounds, partnership searches, or service procurement—rather than attending annually. The event's high retention rate combined with deliberate milestone-based attendance creates more productive meetings and stronger long-term relationship compounding across multi-year drug development timelines.

What did Claire Mackt discuss on Beyond Biotech?

Bio Europe 2026, returning to Cologne November 9–11 for its 32nd edition, expands from three to seven content tracks, adding regulatory affairs, clinical development, and biomanufacturing programming, alongside a new content-only registration pass designed to bring the full biopharma C-suite into a conference historically dominated by business development professionals. Key topics include: **Content track expansion:** Bio Europe grows from three to seven tracks in 2026, adding regulatory affairs, clinical development, biomanufacturing, and an expanded plenary "big picture" series. Companies should audit which C-suite roles—CSO, CMO, COO—now have relevant programming and send those leaders rather than defaulting to BD-only delegations as in previous years.; **Content-only registration pass:** A new pass tier targets professionals in clinical, regulatory, and manufacturing functions who have no need for 30-minute partnering meetings but benefit from strategic discussions. Companies should evaluate this lower-barrier entry point for specialists who previously had no reason to attend, expanding their organization's presence without full partnering costs..

How long is this episode of Beyond Biotech?

This episode is 25 minutes long. SignalCast provides an AI-generated summary so you can get the key insights in about 3 minutes.

Beyond Biotech

How BIO-Europe is expanding beyond dealmaking in 2026

July 17, 2026

25 min episode · 2 min read

Claire Mackt

Episode

25 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Productivity, Relationships, Fundraising & VC

AI-Generated Summary

Published Jul 17, 2026

Key Takeaways

✓Content track expansion: Bio Europe grows from three to seven tracks in 2026, adding regulatory affairs, clinical development, biomanufacturing, and an expanded plenary "big picture" series. Companies should audit which C-suite roles—CSO, CMO, COO—now have relevant programming and send those leaders rather than defaulting to BD-only delegations as in previous years.
✓Content-only registration pass: A new pass tier targets professionals in clinical, regulatory, and manufacturing functions who have no need for 30-minute partnering meetings but benefit from strategic discussions. Companies should evaluate this lower-barrier entry point for specialists who previously had no reason to attend, expanding their organization's presence without full partnering costs.
✓Strategic attendance timing for small biotechs: Early-stage companies should align Bio Europe attendance with specific internal milestones—fundraising rounds, partnership searches, or service procurement—rather than attending annually. The event's high retention rate combined with deliberate milestone-based attendance creates more productive meetings and stronger long-term relationship compounding across multi-year drug development timelines.
✓Biomanufacturing as a C-suite priority: Bio Europe's new manufacturing track reflects an industry shift where commercial, regulatory, and clinical strategies now intersect directly with manufacturing decisions. Companies building long-term commercial strategies should elevate biomanufacturing planning to a primary boardroom agenda item earlier in development, not treat it as a downstream operational concern.
✓Geopolitical agenda integration: The 2026 plenary series addresses MFN pricing policy, US tariffs, manufacturing reshoring pressure, and global clinical trial regulation—topics that directly affect company strategy. BD and executive teams should arrive with prepared positions on these issues, as Bio Europe positions itself as a neutral platform for generating actionable industry responses rather than simply hosting debate.

What It Covers

Bio Europe 2026, returning to Cologne November 9–11 for its 32nd edition, expands from three to seven content tracks, adding regulatory affairs, clinical development, and biomanufacturing programming, alongside a new content-only registration pass designed to bring the full biopharma C-suite into a conference historically dominated by business development professionals.

Key Questions Answered

•Content track expansion: Bio Europe grows from three to seven tracks in 2026, adding regulatory affairs, clinical development, biomanufacturing, and an expanded plenary "big picture" series. Companies should audit which C-suite roles—CSO, CMO, COO—now have relevant programming and send those leaders rather than defaulting to BD-only delegations as in previous years.
•Content-only registration pass: A new pass tier targets professionals in clinical, regulatory, and manufacturing functions who have no need for 30-minute partnering meetings but benefit from strategic discussions. Companies should evaluate this lower-barrier entry point for specialists who previously had no reason to attend, expanding their organization's presence without full partnering costs.
•Strategic attendance timing for small biotechs: Early-stage companies should align Bio Europe attendance with specific internal milestones—fundraising rounds, partnership searches, or service procurement—rather than attending annually. The event's high retention rate combined with deliberate milestone-based attendance creates more productive meetings and stronger long-term relationship compounding across multi-year drug development timelines.
•Biomanufacturing as a C-suite priority: Bio Europe's new manufacturing track reflects an industry shift where commercial, regulatory, and clinical strategies now intersect directly with manufacturing decisions. Companies building long-term commercial strategies should elevate biomanufacturing planning to a primary boardroom agenda item earlier in development, not treat it as a downstream operational concern.
•Geopolitical agenda integration: The 2026 plenary series addresses MFN pricing policy, US tariffs, manufacturing reshoring pressure, and global clinical trial regulation—topics that directly affect company strategy. BD and executive teams should arrive with prepared positions on these issues, as Bio Europe positions itself as a neutral platform for generating actionable industry responses rather than simply hosting debate.

Notable Moment

Claire Mackt notes that over 80% of Bio Europe attendees participate in at least one social activity—a figure that reframes networking events from optional extras into a core conference mechanism, suggesting that skipping evening programming means missing the majority of relationship-building that actually drives deals.

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Episode Transcript

Hello, and welcome to Beyond Biotech, the weekly podcast from La BioTech. I'm Dylan Kysain, and this is episode 206 for the podcast. The life sciences industry has always had one great meeting place, a few days in November where the deals get done, the partnerships form, and the direction of the industry quietly shifts. For more than three decades, that place has been Bio Europe. But this year, something is changing. Bio Europe has always been the destination for BD professionals and dealmakers. In 2026, it's expanding, broadening its scope to become what the organizers are calling the epicenter of biotech with new content tracks covering regulatory strategy, clinical development, and manufacturing, new registration options, and a deliberate push to bring the entire biopharma c suite into the Bio Europe room. My guest today is one of the people driving that transformation. My guest today is one of the people driving that transformation. Claire Mackt is senior portfolio director at Informa, and she's been helping to build Bio Europe for nearly twenty years. We're going to talk about what's changing, why, and what you can expect when the event returns to Cologne this November. Claire, welcome to Beyond Biotech. Thanks very much, Dylan. Very happy to be here. Claire, Bio Europe's coming up. Let's talk about it. It's now it's thirty second edition this year, which is just remarkable. What has kept it relevant for so long? What makes it grow over all of these years? I think a number of things. One, probably the most important is that Bio Europe has grown with the biotech industry. It started in 1995, was the first edition. And at that point in time, biotech involves completely different kinds of company, completely different geographies. And who was at the event, was very different from who comes, currently. I say different, but really it's been an expansion, of that community of the biotech industry. And it started out as a as a trade mission, actually, from The US to Germany because Germany was where the biotech pharma were, at that point in time. And it has grown from there as pharma had developed in other countries, as biotech has developed globally, Bio Europe has acquired a global audience. I think another important reason, that it's grown is because it moves around to a different location each year, and in that way brings in a different flavor of each biotech hub in Europe. Sometimes it's not the largest biotech hub. It doesn't necessarily have to be so. As long as there's a strong ecosystem location, and we certainly see that in, Cologne where we are this year, that community adds something, to the event. And the relationships that come out of a particular locale continue over the years. And people are able to meet each other at the Bio Europe in five years' time or seven years' time. We all know drug development, takes has a long timeline, and it's been really rewarding to …

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