The Year of US-Nordic Collaboration

Happy New Year from Back Bay Life Science Advisors!

January 10, 2023

The New Year always brings many things to mind, and even with uncertainty on many fronts, we can still feel refreshed, reflective and grateful this time of year as we start fresh and think about so many good things ahead.

The past year brought continued growth and learning for Back Bay, with partnerships at every level, from the giants of pharma and medtech to mid-cap, emerging and early-stage companies. Our mantra of action-driven strategy and strategy-supported investment banking continues to resonate in the life sciences community. We remain committed to growth based on sound data and practical counsel that translates into value creation.

If we had to choose one theme from 2022, it would be “US-Nordic Collaboration.” With more than ten years of supporting US-Nordic partnership and growth under our belts, Back Bay was exceptionally busy with Nordic projects and partnerships in 2022.

From our home base in Boston, our team traveled more than 15 times to Copenhagen, Malmö and Lund for conferences and meetings, all reflective of the power of the biotechnology, medtech and healthtech ecosystems in the United States and abroad.

In recent months, we had the pleasure of joining the LSX Nordic Congress, Copenhagen, and Nordic Life Science Days, Malmö, where we launched the first US Pavilion. Our partner, Peter Bak, delivered the keynote address at the Medicon Valley Microbiome Pitch Day, highlighting research projects and startups in the microbiome field looking for collaboration or investment.

A particularly moving milestone for us was the culmination of a year's worth of work and planning on our Nordic Growth Summit which we hosted in Copenhagen with our friends at the Innovation Centre Denmark, Boston. It was a great success, with almost 200 people in attendance from the highest levels of companies and investment groups around the EU, Scandinavia and beyond. We featured speakers on topics ranging from ecosystem development to clinical adoption to regulatory and policy considerations, microeconomic and sector-related issues, macro-economic trends and companies' strategies for growth from around the globe. It was a day of perspective, analysis and friendship.

From the Nordic Growth Summit, we flew to The BioStock Life Science Summit in Lund, where we again were privileged to meet with a broad range of public and private companies. There we learned about incredible technology and connected with experienced management teams with that humble and effective entrepreneurial spirit, a combination so resonant and inspiring from the Nordics.

Back Bay's Nordic year culminated with December's Nordic American Life Science Conference in New York, where an amalgam of US and Nordic investors, companies and thought leaders came together for two days which only reinforced the promise and spirit of US-Nordic kinship we had been feeling all year. 

We feel extremely fortunate to be a part of this work that comes with exciting intellectual stimulation, a sense of robust business and a growing global community committed to improving human healthcare.

With the 41st Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference under way in California, we hope you will connect with us in San Francisco.

For 2023, we wish you peace, good health and a continuation of the strength and spirit of the human endeavor driven by the values of integrity and high standards.

Best, 

Jonathan P. Gertler

CEO, Back Bay Life Science Advisors