collaboration between researchers and venture capitalists accelerates innovation

A collaboration between Regenerative Medicine Crossing Borders (RegMed XB) and the Dutch CardioVascular Alliance (DCVA) will receive an investment of 8 million euros from the Dutch government to set up a new valorisation platform. This facilitates effective translation from excellent researchers and companies with the aim to bring new solutions from the fields of regenerative and cardiovascular medicine faster to the patient.

By investing in valorisation expertise and capacity, we are building a unique valorisation ecosystem in the field of regenerative and cardiovascular medicine to strengthen the regions. Part of this will be a seed fund for innovative early stage cases that often struggle to secure funding due to the high risk involved in investment. In this way, we are building affordable solutions for patients by means of scalable companies that can then be expanded by existing funds. 

Prof. Marianne van der Steen, Director of RegMed XB and leader of the plan: 'It is important for this investment that we can close the current gap between innovative concept, validation and first in-man clinical trials which makes the concept more attractive to large investors. To this end, we will proactively scout with all our partners in order to valorise solutions to impact patients as quickly as possible. This is the first step towards the development of new medical solutions that will then be made available to a large group of patients at an affordable price through upscaling. And that is our goal: to cure and prevent chronic diseases'.

RegMed XB and DCVA have a shared mission to accelerate the development of new solutions to prevent and cure chronic diseases. With this in mind, RegMed XB and DCVA bring together the best researchers and entrepreneurs in the Netherlands in consortia to work in a patient-driven manner to combat kidney diseases, cardiovascular diseases, type 1 diabetes and osteoarthritis. The partners of RegMed XB and the DCVA are (technical) universities, university medical centres, health foundations, governments & provinces and private parties. BioGeneration Ventures (BGV) will be closely involved in the implementation of this new fund.

Prof. Wiek van Gilst, Director of DCVA: 'Thanks to the good cooperation of all partners, brought together within RegMed XB and DCVA, we have not only been able to convince the national government of the impact of our mission, but we also know for sure that we will actually create new and better solutions for patients in the coming years'.

The impulse of 8 million euros is part of an investment programme of 24 million euros with which the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy want to translate knowledge from research to society and the market. This will encourage investments in start-ups that make use of the knowledge produced within research institutes. The funds are provided by the Thematic Technology Transfer (TTT) subsidy scheme and are distributed among three consortia of research organisations and venture capitalists. The consortia around the themes of regenerative and cardiovascular medicine, smart systems and circular solutions each receive 8 million euros.