Program

by Esther Peters, Director Leiden Bio Science Park

After several challenging years for biotech and life sciences, is the investment market finally rebounding? In this keynote, Felice Verduyn - van Weegen, Partner at EQT Life Sciences, will share her perspective on emerging investment trends, high-interest areas such as AI and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and the ongoing challenges facing gene therapy. She will also compare investment activity across the Netherlands, Europe, and China, and discuss whether investors are increasingly focusing on later-stage companies and what that means for the future of life sciences innovation.

Hosted by Health~Holland

The winner of the Venture Challenge Spring 2026 will be announced. The following six teams have started the Venture Challenge Spring edition 2026 and will pitch at the Dutch Life Sciences conference:

ReFOLD Bio - ReFOLD doesnt fix the dna, it restores the protein 

SynTEG - SynTEG: Turning cancer treatment into cure 

Gateway Bio - Providing a gateway for antibiotics 

Autoplan - Robust, automated, radiotherapy treatment plans 

GlycoDiagnostics - Glycons as early indicators of liver fibrosis 

PlateletDx - Treating cancer starts with an early diagnosis 

More info. and backgroud information about the teams. 

About the Venture Challenge
A ‘must-do’ opportunity for all life sciences entrepreneurs and the ideal way to receive coaching and advice on essential elements of setting up a business. In two 3-day workshops, the facilitators and other ‘competing’ teams will challenge you to focus your business idea to create optimal customer value, and you will learn to pitch your business case. At the end of the Challenge, the team with the best venture plan and pitch will be awarded € 25,000.00.

More than ten years ago, an idea to create a programme to support life sciences researchers with entrepreneurial aspirations came true with the start of LifeSciences@Work (LS@W). The Venture Challenge is part of the LS@W programme and has proven to be the most successful startup programme in Therapeutics, Diagnostics and Medical Devices. As of 2021 the Venture Challenge will be organised as a collaboration between NWO and Health~Holland, the Top Sector Life Sciences & Health and is further supported by private sponsors such as Loyens & Loeff and Pivot Park. More information on the Venture Challenge and other LifeSciences@work activities can be found on www.lifesciencesatwork.nl.

During the parallel Startup Forum Early-Stage session in the morning and the Startup Forum Later-Stage session in the afternoon, seven selected companies in each category presented their ventures, technologies, and growth ambitions to an expert jury and the conference audience.

Following a thorough evaluation of the pitches, the jury selected one winner from each category based on criteria such as innovation, impact, business potential, and presentation. During this closing session, the winners of the Early- and Later-Stage Startup Forums will be announced and celebrated.

GLP-1 drugs have achieved in three years what the food industry has not managed in thirty: they have changed how much people eat. Volume is falling, and with it the logic of a sector built on selling more of it. But appetite and requirement are not the same thing. A smaller plate still has to carry the protein, the micronutrients and the fibre a body needs, and in many cases more of them per bite than before. In this keynote, Gali Artzi, Partner and CTO at PeakBridge, a global venture capital firm, examines what “eat less, need more” does to the food system: which categories contract, which ones are created, and how the boundary between food, nutraceuticals and pharma is being redrawn around a shrinking stomach. Drawing on venture capital, corporate investment and partnership activity, she maps where the opportunities are emerging: in the product development this shift demands, and in the investment now moving towards the companies able to deliver it.