| Angel investors offered opportunities to back 21st century medical breakthroughs |
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One of the most dynamic areas for angel investment has always been breakthroughs in treatment of disease and ill health. The medical sector, ranging from biotechnology to instrumentation has long been a popular target for angel investors, as the big winners tend to sell for tens, if not hundreds, of millions of Euros. The teams that judge which companies will have the opportunity to present at one of the EASY Investment Forums are therefore always on the lookout for the new hot medtech businesses. Over the last three EASY meeting 19 of the 66 companies that have presented are planning to build mega businesses in this sector. In fact, this is the single most popular sectors of any that have been represented by companies pitching at the investment meetings. One of the most exciting reasons to be an angel investor is the insight you get into the medicines and medical technologies of the future. An area which is typically protected by strong intellectual property and enormous scalability, it is also an area where investment can actually protect and save lives; a claim which few other sectors can make. The EASY Project has proved that entrepreneurs in the medtech arena are not hiding in a few small geographic locations in the EU. They can be found across the region, from Portugal to Finland and from the UK to Russia. Take the segment of biotechnology, renown for its incredibly high risks, but accompanying massive rewards. In Estoril in late 2007, Helena Vieira founder of Bioalvo (Portugal), presented a business based on whole organism HTS screening systems through which is designs and develops innovative drug development programmes aimed at central nervous system and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s or amyloidosis. Fully recognising the risks associated with bringing drugs to market, Bioalvo’s commercialisation strategy is to take its projects to preclinical stage and then out-license its molecules to partners. In France the team at Mellitech are discovering and developing innovative drugs and diagnostic methods in the field of Type II diabetes. Other companies that have presented at EASY investment events include HepArt (Netherlands) which is focusing on bio-artificial liver support, Firstbeat Technologies (Finland) working on biosignal analysis of heartbeat measurement and Viva Bio Cell (Italy) with is prototypes in diagnostic and tissue engineering. The area of medical technology is often seen by investors as presenting a less risky way of building an investment portfolio in the medtech sector. Considerable interest has been won from angel investors at EASY events in companies in this area. Companies that have found interest include Biovision (Czech Republic) which is developing implantable accommodating lenses for the presbyopic market and Intrauma (Italy) which its new internal fixator systems for factures. For those investors interested in non-invasive procedures, EASY has offered them the opportunity to invest in APA Parafricta (UK) with its low friction fabric is already developed and in use in hospitals, Jbol Ltd (UK) with its medical devices for urine collection and disposal and Invind (Slovenia) and its innovative complete solution for wheelchairs for disabled people. Within the operating theatre, full commercialisation could see Ekliptik’s (Slovenia) computer supported image guided micro navigation systems revolutionising how surgeons can operate, whilst Probe Scientific (UK) may revolutionise the way blood sampling is conducted with its minimally invasive process. Medical technologies clearly also fit into the technology sector. One good example of this is Elsi Technologies (Finland) which produces sensor solutions for the elderly care market. This will be an increasingly important area as Europe works to keep elderly people safe, but mobile and independent in their own homes. Meanwhile back in the laboratory environment one day hopefully we will see Hexascreen (Spain) selling its minibioreactor systems for screening in biotechnology and Mosaic Systems (Netherlands) selling its separation devices for the purification of biopharmaceuticals. At the next EASY investment meeting in Barcelona in April 2008, the project co-ordinators have decided that medtech and healthcare will be one of the three key sectors to showcase to investors. Therefore we expect to see another strong selection of exciting European based companies pitch their innovative science and technologies to the audience of international angels and VC investors. |