The winners of the Venture Leaders Life Sciences
Ten new startups have been selected for the 2019 Venture Leaders Life Sciences Team. The team, consisting of the most promising life sciences startups in Switzerland, will complete an intensive week-long roadshow in Boston. On April 11, you will have the opportunity to meet the team in person at the Startup Champions Seed Night.
The new Venture Leaders Life Sciences team, the best Swiss biotech and medtech startups stand: Startups like Insphero, Covagen and AMAL Therapeutics are among them, but there are also surprises. They will be in Lausanne in April and in Boston, a major life sciences hub, in June.
Boston is considered an ideal springboard for ambitious startups on their way to global expansion. This is why Venturelab is taking the Swiss Startup National Team abroad for the 26th time. During an intensive week, the founders will pitch to important US investors and meet executives and experts from the biotech and medtech industries.
Innovation for the industry:
-Future technologies, drug resistance as a key theme in 2019.
The startups, selected from 60 applicants by a panel of investors and experts, have developed groundbreaking new technologies in a variety of fields. These include more precise diagnostic methods, better treatments for cancer, tools for safer surgeries, and new ways to heal physical and mental scars that occur after accidents or surgeries. Of note this year is that three of the participating startups are looking at new approaches to combat drug resistance.
"I am very pleased with the selection of startups for this year. It's an impressive lineup of cutting-edge technologies, and I'm confident that our U.S. partners will once again appreciate the quality of the team," said Jordi Montserrat, Managing Director of Venturelab. "The team also includes three female founders and CEOs, confirming the trend in previous years of more women not only joining startups, but also taking leadership positions."
Venture Leaders Life Sciences was a "unique program that helped us tremendously in moving InSphero forward. I came back with a lot of good contacts and a much clearer vision of how to run my company and how we need to approach the US market. A must if you want to build a successful company," said Jan Lichtenberg, chief executive officer and co-founder of InSphero, which has raised $35 million in investment for its drug development platform.
Venture Leaders Life Sciences 2019 is organized by Venturelab and supported by EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Hansjörg Wyss, Canton of Zurich, Kellerhals Carrard, Paul Scherrer Institute, swissnex Boston, Canton de Vaud, and Ypsomed.
An overview of interesting startups:
Drug-resistant bacteria pose a threat to modern medicine. Juvabis, a startup resulting from a collaboration between ETH and the University of Zurich, is preparing its new small-molecule antibiotic for human clinical trials this year.
Medyria AG | Mauro Sette | www.medyria.com
Aneurysm repairs prevent distended blood vessels from dangerously bursting. However, these vital interventions can have harmful side effects. Medyria's sensor uses blood flow velocity to measure the position of a catheter, reducing the risk of spinal injury during such surgeries.
Pattern BioSciences AG | Yaakov Benenson | www.patternbio.com | ETH Zurich
Development of complex drugs that increase the efficacy of cancer treatments by targeting combinations of molecules instead of single molecules. The start-up's lead product for the treatment of liver cancer is in preclinical development.
Positrigo AG | Jannis Fischer | www.positrigo.com | ETH Zurich
Alzheimer's affects 50 million people worldwide. PET scanners can detect proteins associated with the disease 20 years before the onset of cognitive effects. Positrigo's scanner reduces the cost of these PET scanners tenfold and makes precautionary scanning possible.
Resistell AG | Danuta Cichocka | www.resistell.com | EPF Lausanne
Develop a diagnostic device to identify the best antibiotic to treat a specific infection 10 to 100 times faster. This can reduce costs of hospital-acquired infections and slow down antibiotic resistance by treating infections with the right antibiotic the first time.
Scailyte AG | Peter Nestorov | www.scailyte.com | ETH Zurich
Single cell analysis is poised to become a key tool in biomedical research. Currently, the industry cannot extract all the data from highly complex single cells. Scailyte is developing AI-based data analytics to improve research, drug discovery and precision diagnostics.
Synendos Therapeutics | Andrea Chicca | University of Bern
Development of drugs to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and other neuropsychiatric disorders by modulating a new target. Synendo's product restores natural brain function by inhibiting endocannabinoid transport across cell membranes. An effective, breakthrough therapy.
TOLREMO Therapeutics AG | Stefanie Flückiger-Mangual | www.tolremo.com | ETH Zurich
Cancer drugs often lose their effectiveness over time, making it difficult to treat tumours that require further treatment. TOLREMO's new molecules destroy treatment-resistant cancer cells at the start of therapy and can be combined with existing drugs.
Volumina Medical SA | Amélie Béduer | www.volumina-medical.ch | EPF Lausanne
Development of an injectable scaffold that helps the body rebuild itself after surgery. Enables natural reconstruction of soft tissues as well as glandular, connective and supporting tissues.
Meet the Venture Leaders Life Sciences 2019 team at EPF Lausanne on April 11. Co-organized by EPFL Alumni, EPFL Innogrants and Venturelab, the event will showcase the Venture Leaders Life Sciences team and ten other promising EPFL startups. For more information:
www.venturelab.ch/startup-champions-seed-night
Follow Startup Champions Seed Night and Venture Leaders Life Sciences Roadshow from June 9-15 on social media using the hashtags #Champsnight and #VleadersLifeScience.
www.venture-leaders.ch/venturel-leaders-alumni
