Three of the European Health Catapult 2018 Winners are from InnoStars

Promising start-ups who will make a significant impact Europe’s healthcare.

The Grand Final of European Health Catapult took place during the annual EIT Health Summit in Łódź, Poland. The representatives of InnoStars network were among top three in each and every European Health Catapult category.

SyNoesis and a cure for Parkinson’s disease:

A professional jury chose the InnoStars’ start-up – SyNoesis Therapeutics (pictured above) – as the winner of Biotech category. SyNoesis is a Greek start-up biotech with the vision to cure Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other major brain diseases. The team aims to capitalise on the potential of a new therapy they have patented for PD for further development towards being successful in clinical trials and becoming the first drug to cure the disease.

The therapy remarkably covers the major unmet needs of PD in several mouse models and has druglike properties. SyNoesis received a cash award that will greatly support them in their development.

NeuroPsyAI and technology that can revolutionize brain health:

In the Digital Health category, the second place was awarded to Portuguese team NeuroPsyAl. The team invented an artificial intelligence which identifies early signs of neurodegenerative illnesses in conventional brain scans. As currently 1/3 of cases of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease are mis-diagnosed, this software-as-a-service allows for the timely detection of the two most common neurodegenerative illnesses, for an earlier and more accurate diagnosis (>90%), by clinicians and pharma companies.

As the right treatment can thus start earlier, disease progression is slowed, and Healthcare is more cost-effective. With a served market of 1.3 million new patients every year (US and EU), and a highly scalable technology, NeuroPsyAI promises to revolutionise mental healthcare.

HydrUStent and the power of biodegradable materials:

In the Medtech category, the proud holder of the third place from InnoStars was the Portuguese innovators – HydrUStent. Every year around ten million people worldwide need a urological stent. But did you know that almost 100% of these people develop a bacterial infection within 30 days of implantation? And also, require a second surgery for stent removal? Imagine that we have a product that avoids this. HydruStent does that!

HydrUStent is a biodegradable, anti-bacterial and tailor-made stent with an underlying technology which has been protected by a patent. HydrUStent not only reduces the risk of bacterial infection but it also cuts down half the number of surgical procedures reducing the treatment cost by 60%. HydrUStent is a Portuguese spin-off company from 3Bs Research Group, University of Minho a leading group in Biomaterials research. The biodegradable ureteral stent is the team’s first product from a patented biodegradable drug-eluting medical devices pipeline.

All start-ups participating in the contests are promising and are surely able to achieve something significant for the European healthcare. Congratulations to all innovators, we wish you further success.