EIT Health Spain names 15 winners of Headstart funding

Support for early-stage start-ups

EIT Health Spain has announced 15 local winners of Headstart funds – which are grants designed to help early-stage companies and SMEs develop their new products and services.

Headstart funding comes with a maximum EIT Health contribution of €50 000 and is intended to:

• support participants in realising next steps towards the market and shortening time-to-market for innovative products and services;
• verify the need/benefit of participant’s product/service for users/customers/payers/partners;
• increase the possibility of attracting further private investment.

The winners

EIT Health Spain named the following projects as recipients of Headstart funding:

Medtech category

• WIVI Vision is an immersive 3D technology to assess and improve children’s visual dysfunctions. These are very common issues, affecting approximately four out of every ten children under 15 years of age. WIVI Vision objectively measures visual function with freedom of movement, high accuracy, and in real time. After a 20-minute session optometrists or opticians are provided with a recommendation report. WIVI is an engaging and comfortable way to assess the visual system, being at the same time cost-effective for the specialist and the user. e-Health Technical Solutions, the company in charge of WIVI, has 25+ years’ experience in the sector and holds a strong commercial network to reach the market.
• New Born Solutions develops first- in-class medical devices for quick, easy, painless and efficient detection of infections, with our focus being on infant meningitis. Given the unique know-how that we are generating, our business model is based on in-house R&D and IP protection, product, consumable and data sales, and business escalation by addressing the different infections within our scope. With a clear strategy to reach a market sized at €20-40 billion, large corporations have already shown interest in us.
• GlyCardial Diagnostics is a Barcelona-based spin-off company of the Sant Pau Hospital Research Institute and CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) focused on the development of a novel in vitro diagnostic (IVD) test for the detection of ApoJ-Glyc blood levels for the early diagnosis of cardiac ischemia and the prediction of patient’s evolution. Acute ischemic events are the most common cardiac emergencies, with substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide. However, there are no available biomarkers for the early diagnosis of ischemia, which is essential to prevent irreversible myocardial damage. Our goal is to bring to a market-ready stage the first IVD for the early detection of ischemia.
• ADmit Therapeutics is a spin-off from Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, and focused on the development of a novel Alzheimer’s disease (AD) early detection test. The pathology is characterized by a long asymptomatic period that has severely interfered with clinical trials, because patients who are recruited are in the advanced stages of the disease. We are developing a blood epigenetic test to identify patients at early stages, which will be useful for optimising patients’ recruitment in clinical trials and increasing the probability of registering new drugs. Series A funding of €1.5 million is needed to start with clinical validation, with the goal of obtaining CE certification in 2022.
• Biel Smartgaze: Low vision, which is more common than blindness, means that vision is reduced and cannot be corrected with regular glasses, medicine, or surgery. We are a team of technology, optometry and medicine experts who joined to create digital glasses that increase the autonomy of people who have low vision. Patient surveys show that mobility issues are the more handicapping effect of low vision. In Europe, 26 million people have low vision, and more than 10% have imperative mobility needs. Using 3D vision, Artificial lntelligence and AR/VR, BIEL SMARTGAZE glasses enhance reality, detecting and signaling obstacles and other relevant items in a way that can be noticed by people with low vision
• Spotlab aims to democratize the access to medical diagnosis. We create a new generation of telemedicine solutions to reduce the time, costs and distances of image diagnosis. Spotlab leverages the power of smartphones, 3D printing and artificial intelligence. An ecosystem of portable devices, connected and controlled by smartphones to acquire medical images; a flexible and simple cloud platform for remote diagnosis and an artificial intelligence assistant to automatize image analysis.
• Able: Spinal cord injury is a catastrophic event that thrusts 5 million people worldwide into a life challenged by disability. These people could stand up and walk again if they had a robotic exoskeleton. However, current devices require supervision and are out of patient’s reach. ABLE Human Motion is a spin-off from Polytechnic University of Catalonia that overcomes these limitations with the first home use, affordable and lightweight exoskeleton that restores the ability to walk naturally and intuitively. ABLE is composed by a motor plus gearbox that act as a muscle and an inertial sensor to detect the user’s intention. It helps in palliating health issues caused by sedentary lifestyle while boosting self-confidence and independence.
• Anaconda Biomed is a medical device start-up exclusively focused on the development of a new disruptive generation of catheters for the treatment of acute ischemic strokes by using mechanical thrombectomies. The company has received financial support from both, private and public institutions, since its foundation. In 2017, with an A-series round of € 15 million, Anaconda became one of the companies in the sector with the most promising future. This fact is highlighted by the public funds (Enisa, Emplea, Neotec, RETOS) granted to us during the firm’s three years of existence. The company has also earned awards and recognition such as CataloniaBio & HealthTech award for being the company with the most relevant milestone of the sector in 2017.

Biotech category

• AptaTargets: Focused on therapeutic aptamers, AptaTargets is currently developing ApTOLL, an immune modulator that offers a novel approach to treat stroke in the acute phase and substantially reduce brain damage. With the Pre-clinical phase already completed, ApTOLL showed outstanding pharmacodynamics with excellent safety profile, and it is ready to start clinical trials Phase I, the first in-human trial. AptaTargets plans to conduct a Phase II trial in stroke patients, being this the basic objective of the Series B (€8.5 million 2019) Additionally, new programmes for other indications will be conducted, such as hemorrhagic stroke, myocardial infarction and multiple sclerosis.
• RemAb Therapeutics is a spin-off of Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), based in Barcelona, aiming to develop polymeric glycoconjugates for removing antibodies to provide health solutions. RemAb’s development plan includes four different programmes. Programme-01 (RA-01 glycoconjugate) is oriented to elicit protective immunity against multi-drug resistance enteric Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. This program is the primary indication of RemAb’s pipeline and is initially planned to reach clinical phases.
• FreeOx Biotech is a company focused on developing medicines addressed to reduce the effects of oxidative stress in an organism, especially those related to the neurological and cardiovascular systems. Our lead product, Ox-01, has a proven effect in preventing the damage caused by reperfusion after stroke. A Phase llb clinical trial successfully conducted on 420 patients indicated that it would be particularly useful in patients undergoing mechanical thrombectomy.

Digital category

• Braingaze transforms mental health care by developing technology that enables accurate psychiatric home-care. Our cloud-based platform detects, monitors and treats mental health disorders. Our solution combines patented diagnostics technologies, Machine/Deep-learning classification, Block-chain protection and Digital treatment to save time and cost for patients and improve health care services. Our technology is backed by clinical KOL. Braingaze operates in a large growing market (annual growth of 24% CAGR) and commercialises a minimum viable product. Our solution is highly scalable providing recurrent revenue.
• ReHand is an innovative solution for the traumatic rehabilitation of the wrist, hand and fingers that aims to displace the traditional exercise protocols on paper. It provides a series of exercises based on the latest scientific evidence, adapted to the pathology and evolution of the patient and performed on the screen of a tablet, an innovation that enhances adherence to treatment and monitoring by the healthcare professional. ReHand has been developed thanks to the feedback of more than 50 leading healthcare professionals, validated in collaboration with the Andalusian Health Service, and hundreds of patients have already benefited from the advantages of ReHand for their rehabilitation, with the results highlighting the greater effectiveness in the recovery of patient functionality.
• HumanlTcare is a technology company building tools for an accurate measure of mental health and wellness. Our product monitors the course of disease in mental health conditions, using artificial intelligence. We use a continuing analysis of the user profile based on data from smartphone sensors, biomarkers, wearables and digital usage to provide an optimal care and a tool for the clinical decision support.
• e-CARER is a non-intrusive, remote monitoring technology that can automatically detect particular behaviours of dependent citizens in their homes, with the aim of improving the health of caregivers, improving the quality of care service and reducing care expenses. Once a predefined event occurs (falling, entering, shaking, lying back, etc), it is transmitted via WIFI or 3G to the caregiver mobile phone via a cloud server. The caregiver thus receives in her mobile an alarm message and then can visually check the situation in real time. As a result, e-CARER HOME provides TIME OFF to informal caregivers: time to rest to have fun, to socialize or to attend other responsibilities.