On 23rd of march 2017 Panaxea hosted the MedtechMeeting at the ‘Silicon Valley’ of Amsterdam: Science Park. This event was organized by MedtechPartners which serve as the accelerator of the development of medical technology innovations in the process to get from idea to a marketable product.
The goal of the MedtechMeeting, which is held four times a year, is to bring entrepreneurs with a specific ‘request for help’ in contact with companies that are able to provide a solution for this request for help. This matchmaking cannot be realized without the partner network which consists solely of partners who can add value to innovative medical start-ups.
During this exciting day over 60 people from all over the Netherlands gathered at Science Park to get to know whether they could be of help to the five innovators presenting their idea. Below we present 3 out of 5 exciting innovation projects that were discussed:
- Hugsy This invention is meant for premature babies that have to stay in an incubator for a long time after birth while during this period physical maternal contact is extremely important. The Hugsy consist of two parts: a multipurpose blanket and a heartbeat module. The module records the mother’s heartbeat during ‘kangarooing’ the baby and therefore can be simulated. The blanket is suitable to us as a pouch, it prevents cold during displacement and keeps the baby comfortable in the incubator.
- Idris Oncology
- Meds2Go
As cancer is a very patient specific disease and cancer cells can change of character in a short amount of time, inducing resistance to existing treatment. Physicians can only monitor these changes through a biopsy. Idris Oncology presented a new tool to harvest enriched circulating cancer cells. The invention is a catheter that needs to be put in the bloodstream and collects cancer cells in the bloodstream by means of specific antibodies which are coated on the surface of the catheter. The harvesting can be done every 24 hours. Analysis of the tumor cells can help to identify the specific mutations within the tumors in a short period of time and promises to facilitate personalized cancer treatment. By swiftly adapting to the changing tumor compositions, resistance against treatment can be countered.
A large group of patients experience problems with storing drugs under the right conditions, especially when traveling. Current cooling devices have very limited travel time (± 12 hours) and absolutely no certainty about the temperature of the medication. This start-up has invented a portable refrigeration container that can transport temperature sensitive drugs for three days (without charging) between a temperature of 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.