Medtech: the New Eldorado of Cyberhealth

Campus Biotech Big data boosts Prostheses, a path the Russian doll bioinformatics to personalised of innovation P9 companies P21 medicine P22 ITZERLAND ITZERLAND 654 684321365 W 0122 20334895 6873543333 TERN S 0122 20334895 S 012220334895 74635135464 TER OF WE S MEDTECH: THE 654 CIENCE CLU NEW684321365 ELDORADO S OF CYBERHEALTH BASED ON ITS STRENGTH IN MEDICAL TECHNOLOGIES THE HEALTH VALLEY OF WESTERN SWITZERLAND , THE LIFE HAS CREATED AN IDEAL ECOSYSTEM FOR E-HEALTH S LP A 012220334895 UE ON BIO SS BioAlps 4 to 6: company profiles and business guide P36 SPECIAL I CONTENT FEATURES 14 Cyberhealth, a new El Dorado for Western Switzerland After biotechnology and the neurosciences, health is becoming an area of expertise in which universities and schools of higher education are positioning themselves, creating an ecosystem which is favourable for spawning start-ups. BY PASCAL VERMOT PHOTO LARGE VIEW NEW & VIEWS FEATURES BIOALPS 4TO6 BUSINESS GUIDE 9 Campus Biotech: 19 “Big Data” boosts 36 AC Immune 50 Bioalps The Russian bioinformatics Business Guide doll of Innovation 37 Productec 20 Enabling stem 11 ObsEva targets cell therapies 38 PhytoArk preterm birth 39 Cremo prevention 23 Medtech for small investors 40 CSL Behring 11 SAV-IOL’s life CONTENT without glasses 24 Prostheses, 41 FRM the avatars 12 Endosense taken of personalised 42 FKG Dentaire 4 From the editor over by St. Jude medicine 5 From the President 43 regenHu of BioAlps 12 3 questions to 26 Adolphe Merkle 44 Ceramaret 6 Techno-image: Jacques Essinger Institute’s Bionic hand. (Symetis) bio-inspired 45 Valtronic 8 Guest editorial: materials ierry Mauvernay 13 Medtronic: 46 Covance 34 e Large View a bigger site for 28 A holy alliance 47 TRB Chemedica smaller devices between research and the industry 48 Baccinex 30 How WHO is 49 MPS COUVERTURE: DR, SOMMAIRE: DR betting on medtech Summer 2014 3 EDITORIAL The cluster Integration effect and openness and medtech, the As an observer of the growth of the Health Valley, Switzerland seems to be a country of opportunity that has can count on skills that go way beyond biology and me- news fl ow has been extremely positive for Western Technology by Bilan can testify that the ecosystem has managed to create an enviable position when it comes dicine. Our expertise in micro- and nanotechnologies Switzerland in the recent past. On the research reached a size that allows it to absorb shocks such as to competitiveness between countries and regions. at as well as in chemistry, computer science and commu- side, the leadership of the Swiss Federal School of the departure from Geneva of Merck Serono two years might just be a result of the country’s openness and its nication is essential both to integrate knowledge and to Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) for the €1 billion pan- ago without adverse impacts on its general dynamic. talent for integration. Switzerland’s history is a tale of develop novel therapeutic approaches. European fl agship the Human Brain Project is attrac- e very same building that used to accommodate successful integrations. During the 16th century, lea- ting new major investment (see page 9). On the busi- Merck Serono is now the heart of a Campus Biotech, ding scholars – such as Paracelsus, Andreas Vesalius and To the lay person, the interdisciplinary approach is not ness side, local and international private companies thanks to private investment approaching the CHF Erasmus of Rotterdam – came to Basel to have their theses obvious, yet it is what drives change and opens new ave- such as Medtronic (see p. 13), CSL Behring (see p. 40) 500 mark from investors such as the Wyss Foundation or essays printed, thus making the town an integral part nues. Interdisciplinarity is one of the best assets we have and Celgene have continued to invest massively in the and the Bertarelli Foundation. And with its Medtech of the Renaissance humanist movement and its scienti- for supporting our leading position in many industrial region. And new medtech start-ups are springing up Village, the microtechnology trade fair EPHJ-EPMT- fi c progress. Closer to our time, one of Switzerland’s keys sectors. e innovation process needs more than the with the arrival of promising SMT is fast becoming a major meeting point for health to success has been its capacity for innovation. Indeed, classic environment that builds new fi elds such as bioinforma- professionals both locally and internationally. Moving our higher education institutes attract fi rst-class talent – on an organisation’s internal re- tics (see p.23 ), equipment for to less formal structures, the region is now home to both from Switzerland and abroad – in a globalised envi- sources by way of its idea ma- stem cell therapies (see p.20) the fi rst Do It Yourself Biology Labs (UniverCités) in ronment. Such openness is a valuable asset that can be nagement systems for its colla- and the emerging domain of Switzerland – places where would-be entrepreneurs measured by, among other things, Switzerland’s degree of borators, internal incubators or bio-inspired new materials can gather, tinker, work together on projects and bring international competitiveness in the fi eld of knowledge. its R&D. Rather, such a process (see p.27) as well as the fi rst together ideas that lead to new start-ups. has to develop in parallel, reac- applications of 3D bio-printing e expansion of our industry has been driven by gene- ting to the fact that the boun- (see p.43) All this means that the cluster eff ect long sought rations of entrepreneurs who crossed the Swiss bor- dary between an organisation by local actors, such as our partner BioAlps, is matu- der. Among the most signifi cant contributors were the and its ecosystem tends to blur. Epitomising the conver- ring. Private investors are very much aware of this. Huguenots, who introduced us to the worlds of chemistry e trend is towards openness – gence of micro, nano, cogni- International venture investment, particularly in med- and watchmaking. Having fl ed France after the revoca- or open innovation – a process tive-biological and informa- tech start-ups, is still on the rise in the region, while tion of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, weavers and silk mer- that consists of going to fetch the tion technologies and meeting trade sales of more mature companies ( see p. 12) have chants turned Basel into the ribbon capital of Europe. e knowledge or even the resources some of the toughest health become common news. And IPO rumours around need for dyes encouraged the chemical industry to take outside the organisation and, in challenges, such as personali- AC Immune (see p. 36), Symetis in Lausanne and root, leading later to diversifi cation into fi ne chemicals turn, providing resources and sation and cost-eff ectiveness, Novimmune in Geneva are becoming more insistent. and, fi nally, into pharmaceuticals. e history of watch- knowledge to the ecosystem. no fi eld looks more promising making followed a similar arc. than cyberhealth. For Western Of course, Western Switzerland’s Health Valley Companies, universities and Switzerland, with its long traditions in fi rst-class me- faces the same regulatory and cost-eff ectiveness Behind every great innovation there are human beings. technology transfer organisations have all deve- dical care, microtechnology and data security and hurdles as its competitors. In her analysis of medical Here, too, there are many examples of integration: Nestlé loped participatory ways of transferring knowledge. accuracy, this is a major opportunity – and one that technology policies, Adriana Velazquez Berumen, was founded by a chemist of German extraction, Henri UniverCité, based in Renens, for instance, following the is beginning to be embraced by a wave of new players the Coordinator for Diagnostic Imaging and Medical Nestlé; Xavier Givaudan was French; and Charles Eugene global DIYbio trend, is positioning itself at the interface (see p. 14). Devices at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Lancelot Brown, who had dual Swiss-British nationality, between industrial design and life sciences. It will be suggests that academic and industrial actors can in- founded Brown, Boveri & Cie with the German-born off ering almost 1000 square metres of open lab space It is also a fi eld where the region’s strong links novate not only to introduce disruptive technologies Walter Boveri. On a more contemporary note, indus- and will be open to the public at large. between industry and academia – bolstered in the but also to adapt medtech to the heterogeneity of na- trialists such as the Bertarelli and Mauvernay families Without the ecosystem it has nurtured, neither recent past to transfer knowledge and technology to tional markets – an opportunity now clearly identi- settled in our country to create and develop their own Switzerland nor any of its industrial, academic and en- the marketplace – are proving to be a major advan- fi ed in the Health Valley. businesses…and the story continues, constantly adding trepreneurial actors could imagine surviving in an in- tage. is process is now functioning at full speed entrepreneurial dynamism to Switzerland. terconnected environment. Nor do they believe that in the Health Valley between Bern and Geneva. For FABRICE DELAYE they are the sole bearers of knowledge: knowledge is to example, a new funding instrument launched in Editor of Technology by Bilan As early as 1761, in the introduction of his famous be found everywhere, and collaboration and exchange 2001, the National Centre of Competence Encyclopaedia, Denis Diderot wrote: “ ere enrich it continuously. Switzerland unders- in Research (NCCR), has given birth to no THE HEALTH VALLEY HAS are two ways of developing Science: one is INTERDISCIPLINARITY tood this long before anyone, by advocating fewer than 79 start-ups, creating more than to increase the mass of knowledge through integration and openness.

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