Today, a strong community

It’s been a landmark year for the Biopôle community. After two years of pandemic, which forced people to work from home and created insecurity for some businesses, our members have returned to the campus and thrown themselves into activities with renewed enthusiasm. We take the opportunity to reflect on the successes of our members and the community as a whole in 2022.

Fundraising figures

In 2022, CHF 397m* were raised by companies based at Biopôle. A total investment of CHF 2.2b has been raised by Biopôle-based start-ups since their inception.

The top five amounts raised in 2022 were:

• US$90m – Distalmotion

• US$38m – Opna Bio

• €27m – Incepto

• US$20m – Novigenix

• €14m – Hedera Dx

* This figure is based on public and semi-public data, but may not be complete as not all companies disclose their funding rounds.

Clinical trials

• ADC Therapeutics shared results from a phase 2 clinical trial of Cami in relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma patients

• Argá Medtech initiated a first-inhuman study for its CSE system

• The first successful transplant of Cartibeads for Vanarix

• GetSet Surgical announced its first patient surgeries

• Ichnos Sciences initiated a first-inhuman study for ISB 1442

• Purple Biotech announced the initiation of a phase 2 study for CM24 in 2L PDAC patients

Landmark partnerships

• After winning the Clinique La Prairie Innovation Award in April, Volumina Medical announced the closing of its Series A funding led by Clinique La Prairie, among others

• Two Biopôle-based companies, Alithea and Adipogen Life Sciences, announced their partnership

• Ichnos Sciences became Biopôle SA’s latest corporate partner

• Hôpital de La Tour became a new sponsor of the Digital Health Hub

• The construction of three new buildings was announced by Biopôle SA in collaboration with Edmond de Rothschild Real Estate SICAV

And also…

• Roche Diagnostics arrived on site

• Ichnos Sciences announced trispecific antibody ISB 2001 as its next clinical candidate for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma

• HAYA Therapeutics opened its US office

• Abionic received IVDR certification for its predictive ultra-rapid sepsis test, allowing for the management of antibiotic administration

• SEED Biosciences’ DISPENCELL was approved for use in clean rooms and sterile environments and the company expanded its presence on site

• Limula launched its pilot phase at the Institut Paoli-Calmettes in Marseille

• Blistee, an innovation developed by AdhereUp, was the first project supported by Biopôle SA through its collaboration with the Hands-on-Human Health Hub (H4)

• Four Biopôle-based companies – SEED Biosciences, Volumina Medical, Resistell and HAYA Therapeutics – were among the TOP 100 Swiss startups, with HAYA Therapeutics placed in the top ten, while scale-up Distalmotion was selected for the ‘Modernising medicine scale-ups’ and ‘TOP fundraising rounds’ categories

• A four-part Q&A Marketing and Communication series, which covered data visualisation, the use of Twitter for conferences, managing and protecting your reputation and harnessing employee advocacy

• A four-part Market Access for Medtech series, including an introduction and sessions on the patient perspective, the product perspective and the health system perspective

• A three-part Medical Software Development series, covering good practices, cybersecurity and digital and growth

• An early-stage investments seminar comprising individual presentations, a round table and a networking session

• Two ‘CHUV meets Biopôle’ networking sessions giving Biopôle members the opportunity to meet key people from central departments at the hospital

• Biopôle Companies Present Themselves, our quarterly event where Biopôle members can discover other enterprises on site in a lunchtime session