Combining cutting-edge science with agile policy, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are coming together to create the Baltic Biotech Hub. DDW’s Diana Turner examines this new hotspot for innovation at Life Sciences Baltics 2025.
A new centre for life sciences innovation is growing in a somewhat surprising corner of Europe. The three Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, are joining forces and combining their complementary strengths in the biotechnology sector to create the Baltic Biotech Hub.
Since regaining independence in 1990, the countries have made significant economic progress, with biotechnology a priority for all three. However, it was identified that a comprehensive regional biotechnology ecosystem would provide the capacity to reach the ‘critical mass’ that is unavailable locally. The Baltic Biotech Action Plan, a strategic initiative of the ‘BioConnect’ project, aims to facilitate this. The initiative identifies the key challenges of such an ecosystem and proposes effective solutions to overcome them with the right mix of talent, infrastructure, funding, and political support.
According to Jekaterina Kalinienė, Head of Innovation Agency Lithuania Biotech Lab, the Baltic countries have already proven that they can grow rapidly and establish themselves in the field of life sciences when acting separately, but by working together, they can become even more competitive on a global scale. “The Baltic Biotechnology Action Plan and the future Baltic Biotech Hub are excellent tools that will bring together talent, infrastructure, funding, and a potentially regulatory environment. For Lithuania, as for its neighbours, it is important not only to strengthen the national ecosystem, but also to create an integrated regional biotechnology ecosystem that would open up new opportunities for innovation, economic growth, and social welfare,” notes Kalinienė.
Estonia: Digital health and biobanking
Each nation within the Baltics offers unique specialist knowledge in different areas of biotechnology. As Agne Vaitkeviciene, Vice-President of LithuaniaBIO, explains in an interview with DDW: “Each of three countries has very different strengths, so for instance Estonia is very strong on digital health, biobanking and creating data for health solutions. Latvia has a very long history of organic synthesis and pharmaceuticals, particularly on the generic side. In Lithuania there’s a lot of R&D, gene editing, and protein synthesis, lots of biotechnology success stories.”
Estonia brings extensive experience in digital health to drive forward innovation in data-powered personalised health and person-centred healthcare. The country boasts comprehensive digital health ecosystems, two decades of experience in implementation, extensive data that lays the foundation for innovation, and a focus on personalised health solutions. Interestingly, 20% of Estonians have given their genome data to the Estonian Genome Centre as part of the Estonian Biobank (EstBB) open-cohort project (1).
Reet Reinart-Okugbeni, PhD, R&D expert from Enterprise Estonia emphasises that Estonia sees immense value in working closely with Latvia and Lithuania in biotechnology, because the challenges are similar and their ambitions complement each other: “By joining forces, we can create a strong regional identity and support our innovators more effectively. The Baltic Biotech Action Plan and the Baltic Biotech Hub will give us the structure we need to pool resources, share expertise, and ensure that Baltic biotech companies are more visible and competitive on the European stage.”
Latvia: Organic synthesis and pharmaceuticals
Latvia’s success in the biomedicine sector is the result of combining its strong R&D capabilities with an established manufacturing infrastructure. Key institutions such as the Institute of Organic Synthesis of Latvia (LOSI) and the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Center are at the heart of this success, as well as pharmaceutical manufacturers Grindeks, Olpha (previous Olainfarm) and Silvanol. The country boasts more than 500 companies in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Pharmaceuticals make up the majority of the biomedical portfolio’s export items, accounting for 38% of all sector exports and generating a turnover of €256 million euros in 2020 (2).
In the 2025 competition for Fundamental and Applied Research Projects organised by the Latvian Council of Science, funding was awarded to 56 projects, with a total allocation of €16.8 million. Ten projects were focused on medicine and health sciences, including smart nanoparticle hydrogels for tissue regeneration, and oncology studies to advance cancer diagnostics and treatment. One beneficiary was Riga-based organ-on-a-chip developer Cellbox Labs, which secured €3.3 million in non-dilutive funding.
“Latvia has a strong scientific tradition in medicinal chemistry, drug development, and biomaterials – but limited scale and resources when it comes to commercialisation, scaleup, and market access,” says Andrii Shekhirev from an independent non-profit Latvian organisation Biocatalyst Foundation. “By aligning with Estonia and Lithuania, the country’s ecosystem can pool talent, attract more international investment, and build the kind of critical mass that makes the Baltics a formidable player on the European and global life science arenas.”
Lithuania: Gene editing and multiomics
With an ambitious goal to contribute 5% of the nation’s GDP by 2030, the largest nation of the three, Lithuania, is becoming a significant hub for life sciences innovation and investment, demonstrating the fastest growth rate in the European Union, at an annual rate of 30%.
The country’s commitment to innovation is exemplified by the BIO CITY project, a €7 billion, decade-long initiative by Northway Group. The first cornerstone of this campus, a gene therapy centre, the first facility of its kind in the Baltics, was opened in late 2024. BIO CITY is projected to become Europe’s largest biotechnology campus, set to create up to 2,400 new jobs over the next decade. Its design includes virology centres, stem cell research facilities, and 3D bioprinting labs. The government is hoping to build on this momentum with incentives including a 0% corporate tax rate for 20 years for large-scale projects.
Kalinienė adds: “We have a strategic goal to have 5% of our GDP generated from life sciences. It is currently 2.6% so we have to nearly double it within five years, but we have had a lot of success so far. We are in a good position to attract investment from abroad as we are a compact market, and this has very big advantages because all the decision-making is very quick, we are very agile. We have a joke that you are only ever two contacts away from the president. And running a clinical trial in Vilnius is still 50 times less costly than to do it in Spain, for example.”
The country is a regional leader in biotechnology, particularly in gene editing and CRISPR technologies, thanks to leading companies like CasZyme. The investment landscape has been strong in recent years. In 2025, multiomics data analysis company VUGENE raised €1 million in funding from Finnish venture capital firm Superhero Capital, while Atrandi Biosciences secured $25 million in Series A funding to advance single-cell multiomics using semi-permeable capsule technology. In 2024, Biomatter, a company specialising in generative AI for protein design, secured a €6.5 million seed funding round to expand its platform. Another key Lithuanian biotech, Psylink, specialising in plant and fungi-derived compounds for mental health disorders, secured €501,521 in a pre-seed investment round in July 2025.
A Baltic biotech hotspot
Vaitkeviciene explains that the Baltic nations hope that their combined strengths will give them a stronger voice in European biotech and greater visibility. “We hope to be a part of the development of biotech strategies within Europe, to have a voice, and as a group we will have more sway and more strength. Within Lithuania we collaborate very well with the government on strategy formation and policies, but we hope to also have an impact on EU regulations and to collaborate with other associations in Europe,” she explains.
“Visibility is very important. Although we can pinpoint some key technological developments and some Baltics companies that are international recognised, as a region we are virtually non-existent in the context of Europe as a whole. Lithuania, for example, was a major player during the pandemic in creating and generating the components for vaccines that were used all over the world, but no one really knows about it.”
Vaitkeviciene acknowledges that as a long-term vision that incorporates a whole ecosystem with many different stakeholders, the Action Plan will have to be approached step-by-step: “We want to start out small but effective and create impact, because there are some fast-track changes that can be done very quickly, but there are also long-term adjustments that need time and patience.”
Initially the Action Plan is focused on developing skills and attracting talent, but also on STEM education and how to increase interest among children from an early stage to enter the sector. The next phase will involve building capacity and infrastructure to enable growth and to support the existing start-up ecosystem, which has blossomed in the last 10 years.
The three nations have a lot of value to offer, Vaitkeviciene feels, particularly when it comes to compact systems, leaner regulation and a lack of ‘red tape’. “Culturally, we bring characteristics like ambition and risk-taking that could help Europe to be braver in life sciences. Another strength is that our regulatory systems are quite streamlined, thanks to the strong support of the government, so other countries can maybe learn from that. For example, Lithuania has established a law that allows secondary healthcare data to be used for research and because there are a lot of digital data in the Baltics healthcare system, it’s easy to comprise specific pools of data that researchers can use to develop new treatments and technology.”
She concludes: “Due to our history, we are relatively new countries in Europe, but because we are compact, we are able to get things done much faster, and this makes it easier to do business and to innovate in the Baltics than anywhere else. It’s a very exciting time to be involved in biotech in the Baltics.”
References:
- Trade Estonia. https://tradewithestonia.com/sectors/healthtech/ (cited 17 October 2025).
- Mission Latvia. https://www.latvia.eu/business-innovation/smart-sectors/biomedicine/ (cited 17 October 2025).
Originally published by Drug Discovery World.
How a New Action Plan Is Putting the Baltics on the Biotech Map
Available at: https://www.ddw-online.com/how-a-new-action-plan-is-putting-the-baltics-on-the-biotech-map-40659-202602/
