Dr Kurt Höller, EIT Health Business Creation Director, will be a panelist at the forum
25th February Munich, Germany - Today, the 12th Annual European Life Sciences CEO Forum kicks off in Zurich, Switzerland. Organised by Sachs Associates, the forum seeks to encourage investment, partnering and alliance building among members of the life sciences industry. More than 350 delegates are expected at the event, which will feature 60 corporate presentations from established and emerging biotech firms.
As part of EIT Health’s work to support start-ups in connecting with industry investors, they have supported five start-ups to pitch, where they will enjoy a high-profile audience for their innovations. EIT Health’s Director of Business Creation, Dr. Kurt Höller, will be participating in a panel on early-stage investment at the 12th annual version of the conference.
“This is a spectacular opportunity for our start-ups to gain exposure in front of a global audience that includes leaders from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries,” said EIT Health’s Dr. Höller. “We are proud to be sponsoring these five exciting start-ups and we know their innovations will stand out as well as demonstrate how the EIT Health network works together towards the shared goal of improving lives in Europe.”
The five start-ups pitching at the forum cover infectious diseases, education, surgical and IV technology, and medical research
Ares Genetics GmbH is taking infectious disease diagnostics to the next level by using artificial intelligence-based DNA testing in order to improve treatment of infections and thereby help to fight the serious threat posed by antibiotic resistance.
“One-and-a-half years into business, we are not only already making revenue from research services and licensing including partnerships with Sandoz and QIAGEN, but we have also teamed up with one of the world’s largest next generation sequencing providers and initiated technology evaluation with a globally leading diagnostics company”, said Dr. Andreas Posch, Managing Director & CEO of Ares Genetics. “The 12th Annual European Life Sciences CEO Forum in Zurich and the EIT Health Investor Network are the ideal forum to build on this traction and initiate further partnerships to expand Ares Genetics’ leading position in next level infectious disease testing.”
Gasgon Medical is a start-up from Ireland that is overcoming the challenge of managing gas bubbles that cause harm, including stroke and heart attack, during common IV infusions. They are developing a unique technology that can reliably vent gas from IV fluids in the line without reducing the medicine dose.
“EIT Health has been instrumental in helping us in progressing our technology and reduce time to market”, said Vincent Forde, CEO, Gasgon Medical. “EIT Health provided us with a ‘Headstart’ grant in 2018, and we are now accessing the wider EIT Health supports, such as ‘Test Labs’ and mentoring services, with ambitions to scale into test markets across Europe by early 2020. We are delighted to present our business at 12th Annual European Life Sciences CEO Forum in Zurich. We will use the platform to highlight the important clinical challenge we are solving with Gasgon technology, and open doors to partners who can help us in our ambition to enhance healthcare and improve patient outcomes across the globe.”
iConcipio’s digital solution (MePlusMe) serves higher education institutions by providing students with personalised support to improve their mental health and study skills. Their innovation offers tailor-made solutions to students that are aligned with their real-time challenges and needs.
“EIT Health has been a key source of information for us regarding funding opportunities and other suitable programmes and is our most valuable go-to contact. Receiving funding from EIT Health to participate in the CEO Forum in Zurich might well lead us to our next big milestone of raising funds to fully develop our system and launch, which we are eagerly working towards every day, said Dr Patapia Tzotzoli, CEO & Founder of iConcipio Ltd.”
Surge-on Medical has developed the next generation of minimally invasive surgical instruments with cable-free technology that provides better access to surgical areas and replaces current pre-bent instrumentation. Surge-on Medical has been granted four international patents for the innovations used in making minimally invasive instruments that are steerable, detachable and cleanable.
“Surge-on Medical has received valuable support from EIT Health in the past years,” said Benno Groosman, CEO & co-founder of Surge-on Medical. “With the ‘Proof of Concept’ grant, Surge-on Medical could bring the PoLaRS (Portable Laparoscopy Robot System) to the proof of concept phase. We have also benefited from the support of the EIT Health network by being able to develop new partnerships to drive our business forward including being connected with distribution and manufacturing partners. Last but not least, Surge-on Medical will be the first company to be launched via EIT Health and aescuvest’s crowdfunding platform, which is the first of its kind in Europe.
Climedo accelerates the introduction of personalised therapies by providing an intelligent platform for digitally connected medical research. Climedo is unique in that it offers rich functionality for electronic data capture, query management and real-time monitoring. As a result, it demonstrably increases the efficiency, quality and transparency of clinical trials.
“EIT Health has been an invaluable partner for us. Next to the great financial support we received, we also get ongoing support, mentorship and new business opportunities from their amazing team and network of industry experts”, says Veronika Schweighart, CEO & co-founder of Climedo. “After developing our solution together with the leading European university hospitals such as the Charité in Berlin, we are now expanding our service to the biotech & pharma industry. We see the CEO Forum as a great "matchmaking" platform to connect a variety of stakeholders, who are all driven to bring healthcare innovation to life.”
About EIT Health
EIT Health is one of the largest healthcare initiatives worldwide. Its goal is to sustainably advance the fundamentals of healthcare and thus promote suitable future conditions for healthy living, active ageing and improved wellbeing of people across Europe. EIT Health leverages the expertise of around 150 member organisations from the pharma, diagnostics and med tech fields, payers, insurers, research institutions and universities. As one of the EIT’s Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), the initiative benefits from some of the world’s best-in-class academic and research organisations and offers both higher education and business expertise. By investing in Europe’s best entrepreneurial talents and ideas, EIT Health fosters the development and commercialisation of smart product and service solutions in the health sector, addressing the challenges posed by demographic change and ageing societies.
Headquartered in Munich (Germany), EIT Health has six co-location centres in London (UK/Ireland), Stockholm (Scandinavia), Barcelona (Spain), Paris (France), Mannheim and Heidelberg (Germany/Switzerland) and Rotterdam (Belgium/Netherlands), as well as regional “EIT Health InnoStars” clusters consisting of industry partners, academia, and health providers linked to seven regions in six countries – Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Italy and Wales.
For more information visit:
www.eithealth.eu
Follow the EIT Health on Twitter:
@EITHealth
Receive our Policy Bulletin each Tuesday & Thursday and news about bridging Europe’s east-west innovation gap twice a month in The Widening. 
