When Global Healthcare Meets Greek Innovation: A Conversation with Marc Casper, Thermo Fisher Scientific

On a September evening in Athens, global healthcare leaders gathered to explore the future of medicine, technology, and Greece’s potential role in shaping both. At the heart of the discussion was Marc Casper, Chairman, President & CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific, one of the world’s most influential healthcare companies, in dialogue with Vassilis Kontozamanis (Former Alternate Minister of Health, Board Member at Delsona Therapeutics) and Simos Simeonidis, (Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Kos Biotechnology Partners).

Kos Biotechnology Partners is Greece’s first VC firm dedicated to life sciences, and founded by Simos Simeonidis and Alex Tzoukas who returned to Greece from the US with the vision to build an innovative life sciences ecosystem. The event brought together founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders for an evening that combined global insights with a distinctly Greek story.

Thermo Fisher’s Greek Roots

Casper began with a little-known story: Thermo Fisher was co-founded in the mid-20th century by Greek engineer George N. Hatsopoulos, who later became a professor at MIT. What started in a garage with a vision to harness technology for the benefit of society has since grown into one of the world’s most influential scientific enterprises.

That ethos - relentless innovation with a purpose - continues to guide Thermo Fisher today. The company, though largely unknown to the general public, is indispensable behind the scenes: enabling clinical trials, supplying biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and helping academic institutions around the world solve some of the toughest medical and scientific challenges.

“No matter how much progress we made, George always said, ‘not good enough.’ That constant push for better solutions has inspired us to this day,” Casper shared.

Confronting Global Healthcare’s Challenges

The dialogue quickly turned to the big picture: what’s broken in healthcare, and how can it be fixed?

Casper outlined the universal pressures:

• Aging populations driving demand for care

• Rising costs that strain governments and households alike

• Capacity shortages across hospitals and systems

• Rising expectations from patients who now have greater access to information

Technology, he argued, is central to bending the cost curve. Advances in biology and artificial intelligence offer powerful new tools, but must be coupled with smart government policy to ensure affordability and access.

Diagnostics: Small Cost, Big Impact

Diagnostics, often just a sliver of healthcare budgets, emerged as one of the evening’s most compelling themes. Despite its modest share of spending, diagnostics guide almost all treatment decisions.

Casper highlighted how precision diagnostics and therapies - identifying the right treatment for the right patient at the right time - can dramatically reduce costs while improving outcomes. He pointed to oncology as a field already transformed by this shift: oncologists can now determine treatment sequences within 24 hours, a process that once took weeks.

Looking ahead, biobanks and citizen data - such as those Greece is considering - could further accelerate innovation. By building large-scale sample collections and applying AI, countries can revolutionize how diseases are tracked, treated, and even prevented.

AI and the Acceleration of R&D

Artificial intelligence, unsurprisingly, was another focal point. Casper emphasized that AI is not just a buzzword but already reshaping the pharmaceutical value chain:

• Drug discovery: Using AI to identify the right targets and eliminate ineffective molecules earlier, lowering development costs.

• Clinical trials: Applying AI to select trial sites and patients more effectively, shortening timelines and improving accuracy.

• Operational efficiency: Thermo Fisher has rolled out AI literacy training across its 120,000 employees to embed the technology into everyday processes.

“If development costs fall, medicines become more affordable, and innovation can scale,” Casper said. “The breakthroughs over the next 18 months will be profound - beyond that, the pace of change is almost impossible to imagine.”

Greece as a Biotech Hub

The discussion wasn’t just global - it was distinctly local. Kontozamanis, Simeonidis, and Casper all pointed to Greece’s potential to emerge as a regional biotech hub.

Why Greece?

• A strong pharmaceutical industry with decades of expertise

• A highly skilled talent pool, with cost advantages compared to the US and Europe’s major hubs

• A committed diaspora network, eager to invest and contribute expertise

• Existing infrastructure, like the electronic prescription system covering the entire population, which could unlock clinical trial opportunities

The war in Ukraine has disrupted traditional clinical trial centers in Eastern Europe, creating space for new destinations. Casper argued that Greece, with regulatory reforms and government support, could become a compelling alternative. “The opportunity set is spectacular,” Casper concluded. “There’s never been a more fluid moment for countries to redefine their economic future.”

For Endeavor Greece, the evening underscored a belief we hold deeply: that Greek innovation, when connected to the world, can shape entire industries.