Five life sciences start-ups have won funding and support from ZCube, the research venture of pharmaceutical multinational, Zambon.
The winners were announced as part of ZCube’s Open Accelerator programme. Now in its second edition, the programme looked to life sciences start-ups for ideas in four key areas including drug delivery systems, open source prototyping, medical devices, biomarkers, diagnostics, wearables & digital health and big data.
Prizes ranged from €100,000 in seed investment, access to Zambon’s campus and consultancy services worth €5,000.
The winners were selected from 124 proposals and went on to take part in a 12-week acceleration programme. The programme provided researchers and scientists with an opportunity to work on their idea and create a profitable development strategy for their start-up’s business model.
The winners include:
- Ananas Liver - A drug delivery system created to limit unwanted side-effects for patients with chronic hepatitis.
- Biorek: The start-up has developed new diagnostic biomarkers and predictors of kidney cancer.
- PD-Innovations: Integrated solution for Parkinson’s patients covering diagnosis and monitoring of symptoms as well as management of therapy.
- PDMEE: A digital platform for real-time management of symptoms and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, management of pharmaceutical therapy and tailoring of treatment to the individual.
- GIMOpd: Tailored, efficient management of Parkinson’s disease based on patented neuroimaging integrated with biomarkers and movement analysis.
Elena Zambon, President at Zambon Spa, said: “With its second edition Open Accelerator has gone international and confirms its key role in providing concrete support to young researchers and entrepreneurs. It plays a key part in helping innovation in life science reach maturity by providing a high quality training programme that a network of highly qualified experts contributes to. We feel strongly that innovation should be rewarded and it’s with this objective in mind that Open Accelerator offers the winning start-ups an initial seed investment intended to help them take their first steps in the world of business.”
Giovanni Rizzo, Chief of the Innovation Division, Zcube, added: “We innovate with passion and are committed to knowledge via our accelerator programme we provide start-ups with a launch-pad into the life science sector. The programme takes place at OpenZone, a scientific campus that houses life science businesses and represents the ideal environment to provide start-ups with the right level of support ranging from technology to business development.”
