Entrepreneurship in Biotechnology: Leading with a Vision for the Next Decade

In biotechnology, leading a company means making decisions today whose true impact will only be visible many years from now. It is accepting that the most important return is not always measured in the next quarter, but in the next decade. Innovation in healthcare requires time, investment, and tolerance for failure. In both a BioTech startup and a pharmaceutical group, this translates into choosing very carefully which projects to focus on and having the courage to say “no” to those that do not meet the required level of impact or robustness. Leadership in BioTech also involves managing uncertainty in a systematic way. With very high costs and high failure rates in R&D, it is essential to have decision-making and governance models that allow projects to be “killed” at the right time, so that resources can be concentrated on those that truly have the potential to make a difference in patients’ lives.

At Ideeea Therapeutics and Farmalider, projects such as AGAcell—our preclinical research in cell therapy for androgenetic alopecia—illustrate this reality well: early stages, uncertainty, and a commitment to move forward step by step. Today, AGAcell is under evaluation by our scientific and clinical teams, and any future progress will be determined by the evidence and by regulatory authorities. In biotechnology, the narrative must always follow the data, never lead it. Another key aspect of this kind of leadership is managing diverse teams. Within a single project, researchers, clinicians, quality experts, regulatory specialists, finance, business, and intellectual property professionals all work side by side. Often, my role is one of translation: turning scientific language into strategic and financial language—and vice versa.

There is also an ethical dimension that cannot be ignored. Biotechnology must serve humanity and be developed with responsibility and with the fairest possible access. This requires prudence in communication, transparency regarding risks, and absolute respect for regulations at every stage. Ideeea Therapeutics, beyond embracing these principles, was founded with the purpose of contributing to the democratization of advanced therapies, working so that in the future they can be made safely and rigorously available to an ever-growing number of patients. Ultimately, this is the true north of leadership in biotechnology: not only building companies, but leaving a legacy of useful science, demanding ethics, and teams willing to think in decades while others remain focused on the next quarter. Entrepreneurship in biotech means accepting that you may never see all the fruits of your work, yet choosing every day to plant the best science and the best leadership in the service of human health. This is the kind of impact worth pursuing in the decade ahead.