CTI Medtech: Start-ups are increasingly active

About 500 participants gathered today in Berne for the annual CTI Medtech event. It is the 16^th event of its kind. The event will showcase successful projects, provide insights into current trends and share views and opinions about future developments in the field of medical technology.

The event started with a review of the activities of CTI Medtech by Gábor Székely, Head of CTI Medtech. Between September 2012 and June 2013 CTI Medtech granted 23 projects and financed them with CHF 6.9 million. The industry partners invested additional CHF8.3 million in those projects. This a clear drop in numbers of projects and project funding compared to the previous years.

But Gábor Székely had also some good news to present – in regard to start-ups. Start-ups are increasingly active. They are main implementation partners in 16% of CTI Medtech projects. And the success rate of projects with start-ups is 60%. “This is much higher than everything we saw in the past”, Székely said.

In addition he could present a real start-up success story. The medtech company Endosense was recently sold for up to CHF 309 million to St. Jude Medical. Endosense was supported by CTI in several ways. The company went through the CTI Start-up coaching process and obtained the CTI Start-up Label. And the company was also industrial partner in projects funded by CTI.

And CTI Medtech is still improving its services for start-ups. Székely mentioned a closer collaboration between CTI Start-up coaches and the life sciences experts of CTI. The coaches are participating at the meetings of the life sciences team. The result is that both groups of supporters understand each other better. So start-ups will get better support when they apply for a CTI project.

The CTI Medtech Event will go on with a presentation of the swissnex network, a key note and a panel discussion about “Innovation in Medtech”. At the end of the event the CTI Medtech Award will be presented. We will be tweeting live about the event and publish another article about the highlights of the day later so stay tuned.

CTI Medtech Initiative
The CTI Medtech Initiative was launched in 1997 and has since funded over 490 projects to the tune of over CHF 160 million. CTI Medtech pursues two main objectives: to improve the innovativeness and competitiveness of Swiss medical technology and to stimulate the transfer of know-how between researchers, medical technology companies, start-up companies and SMEs. Each year, an average of 30 projects are sponsored. In addition between 10 and 20 start-ups from the medtech sector take part in CTI training and coaching programmes.