EUCOPE Member Spotlight: Q&A with Dan Staner, President, Region Europe

EUCOPE regularly spotlights a member company and the great work they’re doing to advance the life sciences industry and drive innovation to serve patients better. In October, we spoke with Dan Staner, President, Region Europe, of Merz Therapeutics.

Dan Staner is President, Region Europe, of Merz Therapeutics. He brings more than 30 years of global leadership experience across pharmaceutical, biotech, medtech and diagnostics organizations. He has led large, complex operations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, with deep expertise in regional leadership, P&L management, market access, government affairs and major product launches. Dan is recognized for building high-performing organizations and navigating highly regulated healthcare environments. Prior to Merz Therapeutics, Dan held senior leadership roles at Moderna, where he led the company’s COVID-19 response across EMEA and built its pan-European organization, and at Eli Lilly, where he spent more than two decades in senior general management and global product development roles.

 

 

Tell us about your organisation and its mission and how you drive innovation internally?

Merz Therapeutics is a family-owned, specialty pharmaceutical company with a clear focus on neurology. Our mission is simple but ambitious: with passion and purpose, we deliver better outcomes for more patients.

What makes us different is our long-term perspective. We do not have to think from one quarter to the next. We can invest in areas where patient needs are significant, even when the scientific path is complex and progress takes time. That freedom is one of our greatest strengths.

For us, innovation is not limited to discovering a new molecule. It can mean improving how an existing treatment is delivered, entering a partnership that gives a promising therapy a better chance of reaching patients or finding a smarter way to address gaps in care. We combine our own research and development capabilities with acquisitions and external partnerships because we firmly believe that no company has all the best ideas within its own walls.

Internally, innovation works best when people are trusted to challenge established thinking and take responsibility. Our size helps us here. We are large enough to operate internationally but focused enough for good ideas to move quickly between teams and decision-makers.

How do your organisation’s activities help patients now and into the future?

Our starting point is always the reality of living with a neurological condition. These conditions can affect movement, communication, independence and a person’s ability to participate in everyday life. Even improvements that look modest on paper can make a meaningful difference to patients and their families.

Today, we help patients through our established treatments, our work with healthcare professionals and our collaborations with patient organisations. But providing a medicine is only part of the job. A treatment creates value only if the right patient can access it, at the right time and with the appropriate support.

Looking ahead, we want to reach more patients in more areas of unmet need. We are doing this by strengthening our research and development activities, expanding our portfolio and working with partners whose science complements our expertise.

We also need to listen more carefully. Decisions about research, development and access are stronger when they reflect the experiences of the people who live with these conditions every day. Patient engagement should not be treated as a box to tick at the end of a process. It should help shape the process from the beginning.

Looking to the future, the need for innovation in neurology will only grow. Europe, like much of the world, is experiencing a rapidly ageing population, and with that comes a rising burden of neurological conditions. These diseases already affect millions of people and place increasing demands on patients, families, caregivers and healthcare systems. Addressing this challenge will require not only new therapies, but also earlier diagnosis, better care pathways and stronger collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the life sciences industry today?

The biggest challenge is the growing disconnect between Europe’s ambition to be a leader in life sciences and the practical conditions companies face when trying to develop and launch innovative medicines here.

Everyone agrees that patients should have faster access to effective treatments. But adding new obligations for pharmaceutical companies does not automatically solve access delays. Many of the underlying barriers sit within national pricing, reimbursement and healthcare systems.

This is particularly important for small and mid-sized innovative companies. We operate with more focused resources than the largest pharmaceutical businesses, while taking on many of the same scientific, regulatory and financial risks. Every additional layer of uncertainty influences where companies conduct research, make investments and launch new treatments.

Europe needs high standards, but it also needs greater predictability and a clearer understanding of what drives innovation. Patient access, affordability and competitiveness should not be treated as competing objectives. Good policy has to bring them together.

What are the major health policy issues and themes that you are most focused on in 2026?

In 2026, our central policy question is whether Europe can translate its ambition for life sciences into an environment in which innovative companies can genuinely succeed.

The implementation of the revised EU pharmaceutical legislation is a major focus. We welcome measures that can modernise the regulatory system, including shorter timelines and regulatory sandboxes. At the same time, reducing incentives while adding new obligations sends a conflicting signal to companies making long-term and high-risk research decisions.

We are especially concerned about measures that try to solve unequal access through additional obligations at the European level without addressing the national causes of access delays. A new treatment cannot reach patients faster if pricing and reimbursement processes remain fragmented, lengthy and unpredictable.

The implementation of the EU Health Technology Assessment framework is another priority. Greater European cooperation can reduce duplication and improve efficiency, but only if the process remains scientifically robust, workable and connected to national decision-making.

We are also following policies relating to health data, artificial intelligence, supply resilience and European competitiveness. These issues are increasingly interconnected. Digital tools and better use of health data can support research and patient care, but companies need clear, proportionate and consistent rules.

Our position is straightforward: Europe should protect patients, uphold high scientific standards and maintain sustainable healthcare systems. But it must also remain a place where companies choose to research, invest and introduce innovative treatments.

 

What attracted you to join EUCOPE and how can we help you achieve your business goals?

We were attracted to EUCOPE because it represents a part of the pharmaceutical sector that is essential to European innovation but is not always heard clearly enough: small and mid-sized innovative companies.

Merz Therapeutics brings together several qualities that fit this community well. We are family-owned, internationally active and highly focused in our therapeutic areas. We take a long-term approach to investment and growth but we also need to remain agile. Policy decisions that may be manageable for the very largest companies can have a very different impact on a focused company like ours.

We do not want simply to follow European policy debates from the sidelines. We want to contribute practical experience from specialty neurology and explain how regulatory, access and incentive frameworks affect real investment decisions. We can also bring a family-owned perspective that looks beyond short-term financial cycles.

EUCOPE can help ensure this perspective reaches policymakers early enough to influence meaningful decisions. It also provides an important forum for learning from companies facing similar challenges and for identifying areas where the industry can speak with a stronger collective voice.

Ultimately, our goal is not regulation for its own sake or deregulation for its own sake. It is better policy: policy that rewards meaningful innovation, supports responsible companies and helps effective treatments reach patients sooner.