Five new CTI Startup label companies

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Stefan Kyora / Ritah Ayebare Nyakato

13.04.2016

Five high-tech startups have been awarded the CTI Startup label in acknowledgement of their distinguished innovation. These include Insightness, One Drop Diagnostics, Rheon Medical, rqmicro and Versantis.

Three of the new CTI label companies are medtech start-ups proofing the importance and the strong innovative drive of this industry. The batch is completed by one biotech and one ICT start-up.

The five new CTI Startup label bearers are:

Insightness, Zürich
Position information is crucial for mobile devices. But for many applications, the wide-spread global positioning system (GPS) is unsuited: it does not work indoors, it is too slow and too imprecise. Insightness has a solution: The ICT start-up is building visual positioning systems (VPS) that compute the position and orientation of a device as well as a 3D map of its environment. A VPS consists of one or multiple of “Silicon Eye” vision sensors and a processor to run the Insightness algorithms which perform simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). The solution offers superior performance at low power consumption. It can be used for smart drones and robots requiring fast and precise position information as well as 3D maps of their environment. Insightness’ VPS deliver this information and thereby enable new applications in the field of automated agriculture, mining, inspection or logistics.

One Drop Diagnostics, Neuchâtel
The young medtech company develops high performance point-of-care diagnostics devices with a combination of the best techniques from microfluidics, biochemistry, photonics and information technology. The mobile medical diagnostics device provides laboratory quality diagnostics at any place be it at the patient’s side, at the doctor’s office or at home. The 1Drop Diagnostics system is being developed for a broad menu of clinical applications including multiplexed assays of proteins, nucleic acids and peptides. Our first clinical application is the screening, diagnostics and monitoring of cardiovascular disease.

Rheon Medical, Préverenges
The startup developed the “eyeWatch”, a non-invasively adjustable glaucoma drainage device. These devices are used for complicated glaucomas or when complications in glaucoma surgeries occur. Rheon developed an implant and a control unit allowing to control the intraocular pressure (IOP) level and to limit ocular hypotony with a simple and non-invasive adjustment of the IOP. The adjustment is performed non-invasively using an external control unit, which is used to read the functional position of the implant and to adjust its fluidic resistance while maintaining intraocular pressure within the optimal clinical-targeted range. The first eyeWatch was implanted in Clinique de Montchoisi, Lausanne, in September 2015.  

Rqmicro, Zürich
Rqmicro developed a pathogen separation and detection technology that delivers accurate results in less than one hour. Classic cultivation-dependent methods that require days for a result. By separating bacteria with magnetic nanoparticles out of the sample matrix and quantifying them on the single cell level, it is possible to achieve superior test performances for water or food samples within minutes. One of the first applications are accurate Legionella SGI counts. Rqmicro's first flag ship product “CellStream” is a rapid sample preparation instrument. The instrumentation works in conjunction with rqmicros reagent kits and microfluidic cartridges for a complete solution, enabling the user to isolate target cells from a raw sample. The disposable and convenient-to-use microfluidic cartridges enable the user to perform fully automated immunomagnetic separations (IMS) at a high throughput resulting in isolated samples with greater than 99% purity and competitive recovery rates.

Versantis, Zürich:
The ETH spin-off is a preclinical stage pharmaceutical company focused on rare liver diseases. Versantis’ lead product candidate, VS-01, is the first safe and effective treatment for acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF), a life-threatening condition of high unmet medical need. The mortality of ACLF patients is alarming due to multi-organ failures resulting in a dangerous accumulation of toxins in the blood. The versatile mechanism of action of VS-01 can support simultaneously the affected organs (liver, kidneys, brain) and clear these toxins from the body. Versantis submitted a request for VS-01’ orphan drug designation in the indication of acute liver failure. The start-up will have its first scientific advice meeting with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in April 2016.

CTI Start-up enables creative entrepreneurs to realize their innovative business ideas quickly and professionally. Through a three-phase, firmly guided process lasting 8 to 26 months, a dedicated expert will help the venture’s project evolve sufficiently to apply for the CTI Start-up Label. The Start-up Label is a seal of quality, a certificate of achievement, and a sign of credibility and readiness for sustainable growth. It is awarded by the CTI Certification Board that is composed of seasoned entrepreneurs and experts.

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