Meet Our Accelerators
Roger Lias, President of Ventures Accelerated U.S.
“Development within the life science marketplace is highly complex, capital intensive, and strictly regulated - it truly does take a village. For that reason, it’s all about building connections and surrounding yourself with good people who aren't afraid to cross borders.”
Meet Dr. Roger Lias.
With a career spanning biopharma, CDMOs, and advisory roles across Europe, North America, and Asia, Dr. Roger Lias brings a deeply entrepreneurial mindset to building and scaling life science companies. Drawn to startups and turnarounds, his path has been shaped by agility, a “whatever it takes” mentality, and a strong belief that complex challenges are only solved through collaboration.
Now, as the newly appointed President of Ventures Accelerated U.S., Roger is spearheading the firm's formal entry into the American life science ecosystem. From market access and manufacturing to strategy and execution, his global perspective and hands-on leadership help connect innovation across borders, accelerating the journey from breakthrough science to real-world impact.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your career journey
I consider myself very fortunate to have spent my career in the broad "biopharmaceuticals space" and to have been able to work extensively in Europe, North American and Asia. My career path has been somewhat convoluted as I specialize in the entrepreneurial side of the market and enjoy start-ups and turnarounds - almost by definition this means that I have had to be pretty agile and you quickly learn to adopt a "whatever it takes" attitude - no ivory towers! Perhaps the biggest learning is that you can't do it alone. Development of commercialization products, technologies and services within the life science marketplace is highly complex, typically capital intensive and controlled by strict regulations - it truly does take a village! For that reason I see my leadership style as having evolved to be highly collegiate and collaborative. Surround yourself with good people; don't be afraid to cross borders; listen, stay curious and empower people to take ownership.
Across biologics, CDMOs, and emerging biotech, where do you believe companies can unlock the most impact, and where do they most often struggle?
That's a big question! In the emerging biotech space we see over and over again small companies with great technologies who struggle because they aren't good at telling their story and because they don't have a good planning horizon. This directly impacts the ability to raise funds and tends to slow progress at a time when speed is everything and acceleration and "keeping your foot on the pedal" is so important. Development plans (which are typically well understood) become worthless if there are not parallel financing plans; CMC/manufacturing plans and market entry plans in parallel. It is never too early!
The CDMO marketplace, which I know well, is becoming ever more nuanced and fragmented and, in many ways is now actually multiple markets as we see big differences between development/clinical phase service providers and multinationals offering huge volumetric commercial manufacturing capacity. Similarly manufacture of small molecules, traditional biologics and cellular therapies are all extremely different in technologies and market dynamics. I think my best advice is to understand what you are good at it and stick to it!
Based on your experience, what do companies most often underestimate when entering new markets, particularly the US, and how can they better prepare for successful market introduction?
If we are talking about therapeutic products (drugs or combination products) I see a lot of emerging ex-US companies under-estimating the complexities of the private market access system here in the US (payers, healthcare systems, pharmacy formularies; logistics/distribution etc.) - navigating this system typically requires partnerships or expert support. Behind this is the need to demonstrate economic as well as therapeutic value and the importance of strategic positioning, working with patient advocacy groups, cost-benefit analyses and so on are often initially overlooked. For life science tools the situation is perhaps a little easier, but in either case there is no substitute for local knowledge and the right introductions!
You have recently been appointed President of Ventures Accelerated US. What does this role mean to you?
I am very excited about this new role as it signals very clearly how important the US market still is and how seriously committed Ventures Accelerated is to supporting our global customers. What started as a somewhat "Nordic centric" idea and venture has very quickly grown into a trans-Atlantic organization with increasing presence in the APAC region as well. It really demonstrates our belief that global connection is vitally important and accelerates brining vital medicines to patients and important services and technologies to industry. We now have a well established presence in California in the Bay Area, LA/Orange County and San Diego and we anticipating growing rapidly into other biotech hubs in the US to be close to life science companies, academic institutions and investors.
How do you see Ventures Accelerated’s presence evolving in the US market?
At Ventures Accelerated we believe that it is important to look beyond the current geopolitical environment and that despite current tensions, it is imperative that Europe and the US continue to cooperate in support of better population health and economic growth. We still operate withing a global marketplace and collaboration remains key. There remain huge opportunities for B2B collaboration, alignment of regulatory frameworks and a host of other initiatives to streamline and accelerate development if we are smart enough to take advantage of them. I see amazing developments every day, whether it is potentially curative immunotherapies, advanced delivery technologies, AI driven efficiencies, targeted personalized medicines or novel manufacturing approaches. The growth potential remains huge - let's accelerate!