SPONSORED: UBS Asset Management — Supply-demand imbalance makes life sciences sector ripe for investment

Venture capital stepped in to support life sciences companies as the pandemic added additional urgency to the sector’s need to develop medical solutions to global health problems. Beyond capital, life sciences companies need real estate space, customized to very specific tenant requirements. That’s where institutional capital can help to bring supply to meet demand, as European life sciences markets begin to catch up to more mature U.S. markets.

“On the supply side, there is basically no purpose-built modern laboratory space for growing companies across Europe. Any existing space is predominantly within university or hospital campuses, or in dated laboratories. There hasn’t been institutional-grade investment into developing life sciences space in Europe,” explains Zachary Gauge, head of European Research and Strategy Europe ex DACH at UBS Asset Management.

In an interview published in the June issues of Institutional Real Estate Americas and Institutional Real Estate Europe, Gauge discusses the nuances of developing this space and working with hospitals and universities to create manufacturing space for this vital work. “We’ve identified about 14 potential hubs across Europe, but these are much smaller in scale than in the United States and the United Kingdom,” says Gauge. “We see this as an early-mover opportunity to go into some of these markets in Europe, where we’re seeing the same dynamics develop in terms of the research excellence at a university or a hospital.”

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