Czech Life Sciences & Biotech Showcase comes to Luxembourg
The Czech Republic brought its leading life-science players to the City of Luxembourg as Great Europe, together with IOCB Tech as its General Partner, presented the Czech Life Sciences & Biotech Showcase, on December 10–12 2025. Prague.bio, the association representing major Czech life sciences stakeholders, was co-organising part of the conference to boost the sector’s global importance.
The event connected leading representatives of Czech research institutions, technology transfer experts, and biotech founders with European investors and fund managers in Europe’s largest fund centre. The organisers aimed to demonstrate that Central Europe — and Czechia in particular — is becoming a reliable source of European biotech deal flow.
IOCB Tech: Building a Visible and Connected Innovation Pipeline
IOCB Tech is the technology transfer arm of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague). As one of Central Europe’s most comprehensive translation infrastructures, IOCB Tech connects fundamental research with commercial partners, investors, and international networks.
“This is a story of a country that has already shaped the global HIV market once, and whose research pipeline continues to produce globally relevant science,” says Milan Prášil, Director of IOCB Tech. “Now, the much broader, excellent scientific base in the Czech Republic offers new opportunities for international research collaborations on urgent health issues”. To strengthen these collaborations, IOCB Prague opened a branch in Boston in 2024 – the first Czech Academy of Sciences institute with a permanent US presence – embedding itself within the world’s densest innovation cluster around Kendall Square.
Czech Biotech in Numbers: From Niche to European-Scale Sector
The Luxembourg Showcase reflects an expanding, increasingly coordinated national sector. According to data compiled by Prague.bio, CzechInvest and fDiMarkets (2022–2025), Czech biotech and life sciences now comprise:
- 393 active companies (2025)
- Over 22,000 employees (2022)
- €3 billion in annual turnover (2023)
- €1.5 billion in cumulative foreign direct investment since 2003
“The numbers make it clear that Czech biotech has moved far beyond a hidden niche,” says Petra Kinzlová, CEO of Prague.bio, the biotechnology association uniting key companies, research institutes and early-stage ventures across Czechia and the wider CEE region. “The sector has real scale, but it remains under-represented in Europe’s late-stage capital flows. That is precisely why Luxembourg — as Europe’s capital engine — matters”.
Prague.bio, founded in 2023, works to increase the international visibility and connectivity of the Czech life-science ecosystem. It also serves as the Regional Host of BioEquity Europe 2026, the continent’s leading biotech investor conference held in Prague for the first time in its 26-year history. The organisation brings together academic institutions, private companies, incubators, and investors within a coordinated framework to accelerate biotech innovation in the CEE region.
Scientific Legacy and Global Impact
IOCB Prague is one of Europe’s largest and most respected chemistry-focused institutes, with more than 1,000 staff members and 50+ research groups. Its legacy in antiviral research has had a global impact. The institute is renowned for the discoveries of Prof. Antonín Holý, whose acyclic nucleoside phosphonate compounds – notably tenofovir – became the backbone of modern HIV and hepatitis B therapies developed and commercialised by Gilead Sciences.
One of Holý’s former collaborators, Tomáš Cihlář, now Senior Vice President, Research, Virology at Gilead Sciences, has contributed to multiple antiviral products, including remdesivir and the long-acting HIV therapy lenacapavir, currently in development as a twice-yearly injectable for HIV prevention. This scientific heritage continues to shape Czechia’s global collaborations and informs its current ambitions for translational research.
IOCB Tech Group: A Complete Innovation Pathway
The IOCB Tech Group comprises organisations affiliated with IOCB Prague that jointly support the development and translation of discoveries in chemistry and the life sciences:
- IOCB Tech – technology transfer office evaluating research, protecting IP, structuring collaborations and licensing.
- PharmTheon – translational research centre offering medicinal chemistry, molecular biology and AI-assisted drug discovery.
- i&i Prague – incubator and venture-building platform supporting early-stage spin-offs.
- IOCB Tech Foundation – an organisation supporting science, scientific talent and public understanding of research.
Together, they provide a rare and fully coordinated model in Central Europe — linking fundamental discovery to investable opportunity.
Towards BioEquity Europe 2026 in Prague
The Luxembourg Showcase also previewed BioEquity Europe 2026, Europe’s premier biotech investor conference. “BioEquity is, in many ways, the annual temperature check for European biotech investment,” says Petra Kinzlová, CEO of Prague.bio. “Bringing it to Central Europe for the first time signals that our region is now a structural part of the European biotech map. We expect approximately 1,200 global players to participate, which represents a massive opportunity to showcase what Central Europe can offer and to solidify relationships for future investments”.
Science Meets Culture: The Elegance of the Molecule
The programme included a performance by the nationally acclaimed Dejvické divadlo (Dejvice Theatre). “Elegance molekuly / The Elegance of the Molecule”, written and directed by Petr Zelenka and starring Ivan Trojan and Martin Myšička, offers a cultural perspective on one of Central Europe’s most consequential scientific stories – that of Antonín Holý and his antivirals.
