Bridgehead Global to help 21 firms expand beyond Europe

Winners of the pilot of EIT Health programme announced 6 May 2020

Twenty-one SMEs promoting a wide range of healthcare technologies – from prosthetics to drug testing to medical imaging and more – have been selected to receive support in reaching markets beyond Europe in EIT Health’s Bridgehead Global programme.

Chosen from 78 applicants, the winning start-ups and scale-ups were officially announced on 6 May 2020. They were judged on the innovativeness of their solution, their business model and traction in their home market, and their readiness to expand beyond European markets.

In this pilot edition of the Bridgehead Global programme, these companies will receive dedicated support from an EIT Health vetted network of committed European incubators, clusters and accelerators that have experience in helping health start-ups to open new markets outside Europe. By providing highly individualised support, the programme helps European healthcare innovators establish themselves globally.

Find out more about the Bridgehead programme here.

The chosen SMEs

The following companies will be supported through the Bridgehead Global 2020 programme:

AddMovement (Sweden): Provides greater freedom of movement than a typical wheelchair with a gyro-based personal mobility product called AddSeat. AddSeat occupies less space than most wheelchairs and easily moves over surfaces that wheelchairs cannot handle, such as sand, grass or cobblestones.

Aparito (The Netherlands): Supports the development, access and monitoring of promising therapies for children and patients with rare conditions, using innovative data collection technology. The company offers in-house expertise in drug development for rare diseases and paediatrics, and supports the use of the most effective regulatory strategies.

ATRO Medical (The Netherlands): Develops a durable meniscus prosthesis for people with knee osteoarthritis (KOA). The prosthesis aims to reduce pain and restore knee mobility for the large cohort of meniscus-deficient KOA patients.

Bitbrain (Spain): Develops cutting-edge products for human behaviour research and human augmentation with neurotechnology. One of their health applications is Elevvo, a brain-computer interface designed to enhance cognitive functions by up to 30%, improving a person’s performance of daily activities.

BV Medical Technologies (Spain): Focuses on development of new innovative products in the health-tech sector. BVM is currently developing new projects related to otolaryngology, urology, paediatrics and thoracic surgery.

CILcare (France): Offers unique expertise in testing the efficacy and safety of drugs, gene therapy, cell therapies and implantable devices that target hearing loss, tinnitus and otitis. CILcare works to develop solutions for the 466 million people worldwide suffering from hearing disorders.

Ergotrics (Belgium): Specialises in positioning and moving patients with compressed air. The company designs and produces inflatables that tilt and lift patients quickly, easily, ergonomically, hygienically and safely. The result is better care for patients and improved working conditions for carers, in hospitals and at home.

FibriCheck (Belgium): Transforms a smartphone or smartwatch into a medical device that can help prevent strokes by detecting atrial fibrillation and other heart rhythm disorders. The in-app screening produces real time diagnostic data. The ability to check heart rhythm at home reduces unnecessary burdens on providers and offers patients peace of mind.

Fizimed (France): Develops connected medical devices dedicated to women’s health. Recommended by healthcare professionals, EMY is a connected biofeedback device to strengthen the pelvic floor at home, in order to stop urinary leaks, prevent prolapse or improve intimate well-being. EMY gives any woman the freedom to do Kegel exercises whenever and wherever she wants.

Lattice Medical (France): Creates a new paradigm in the field of breast reconstruction. Founded after six years of research in Lille Hospitals, Lattice Medical develops MATTISSE, the first fully degradable 3D printed breast implant. The innovation allows autologous regeneration of the breast in a single and simple surgery.

LS CancerDiag (Finland): Seeks to save millions of lives by predicting cancer and enabling personalised care through early detection of Lynch syndrome. The company has developed DiagMMR®, an innovative screening service that reliably detects Lynch syndrome, the biggest single cause of hereditary cancers, in particular colorectal and endometrial cancer.

Meditect (France): Uses blockchain and artificial intelligence to develop digital solutions that guarantee the traceability and the authenticity of medicines along the distribution chain. The goal is to stop counterfeit medicine, which kills more than one million people a year, and to ensure better access to quality medicines.

Milvue (France): Develops deep-learning-based medical device radiology software designed by and for healthcare professionals. The company’s first product is dedicated to the x-ray workflow in emergency care, providing a reliable and secure immediate triage and diagnosis aid to help doctors save time and reduce care delays while preventing diagnosis errors.

MOWOOT (Spain): Offers a device that treats intestinal transit disorders with a purely physical, non-drug, non-invasive solution. MOWOOT is a growth stage medical company that has already earned recognition and awards for its treatment of constipation and similar ailments.

NU-RISE (Portugal): Drives the next-generation of radiotherapy by providing real-time patient dose tracking for precise, autonomous and safer radiation oncology.

OcellO (The Netherlands): Offers drug testing in 3D-cultured human tissues, such as organoids. The unique high-throughput, high-content 3D imaging platform developed at OcellO is used to visualise and quantify treatment effects. OcellO tests drug candidates for oncology, immuno-oncology, inflammation and cystopathy indications, helping customers to discover the full potential of their compounds.

PHLECS (The Netherlands): Develops and commercialises UV- and drug-free photo-dermatology solutions. PHLECS has developed a proprietary technology platform to address unmet patient needs in the area of inflammatory skin diseases, such as psoriasis or eczema.

Posos (France): Develops an AI-based medical search engine providing healthcare professionals with immediate answers to their medical questions. Posos’s solution is based on machine learning algorithms (NLP) that structure medical knowledge and make it easily searchable, in order to identify the most relevant extracts from the most reliable sources of information.

Protinhi Therapeutics (The Netherlands): Develops novel drugs against diseases with a high unmet medical need by using proprietary technology and compounds that target diseases on the molecular level via protease inhibition. The focus of Protinhi Therapeutics is on upcoming viral threats, including flaviviridae (e.g., dengue), chikungunya and coronaviruses.

Psious (Spain): Provides innovative Virtual Reality solutions for mental health professionals. The company offers treatments for specific phobias, resources to improve anxiety disorders, pain management and relaxation environments – all of which that improve patients’ outcomes, adherence and efficiency of treatment, while also reducing barriers of entry and cost of treatment.

VirtualiSurg (France): Develops high-performance, ethical, economical, adaptable and highly versatile surgical simulators. Like aircraft pilots, surgeons need real simulators in order to have a training experience that helps ensure patients’ safety. Thanks to virtual reality and machine learning, surgeons benefit from an ultra-effective training solution.