LIFE Cooperative with AccelMed for faster development of medical technology
AccelMed is a contraction of Accelerate and Medical. Under this name, various parties combine their expertise in the field of medical technology. They accelerate the development of new products or companies. AccelMed is an initiative of LIFE Cooperative. This cooperative stimulates and strengthens the ecosystem in the field of life sciences in the Northern Netherlands and facilitates cooperation between companies and knowledge institutions. Johannes Wolters, President and CEO of Lode Holding, is a board member of LIFE Cooperative and chairman of the steering group that has guided AccelMed in its early life. He explains the vision behind this new accelerator.
“Within the life sciences we have roughly two pillars: pharma and medical technology. Pharm is all about medicines and drug delivery, ways to get the medicine into the body where it can do its work. Medical technology or medical devices are medical tools, such as implants or devices. ”
Specialized world of medical technology
One of the reasons for setting up AccelMed is that the world of medical technology is very diverse and specialized, explains Johannes Wolters. “Lode Holding’s core expertise is the development and production of measuring equipment for performance and movement. We do that for Olympic gold medalists, to help them with their performance, for people who are rehabilitating and have to learn to tie their shoes and everything in between. Other companies focus on general practitioners, oncology or radiology, for example. This concerns completely different equipment, different conferences, a different sales strategy and a different market: everyone is active in a specific area of application. We are regularly approached by companies or researchers who see possibilities for applying research from the UMCG, for example. Then we have a good conversation, sometimes get enthusiastic, but it often stops there when it is not about our area of application. We have discovered that this applies to each individual company: we are all busy helping ‘beginners’, each in our own way and within our own expertise. Together we can do much more to help good ideas move faster towards financing and development. We can then take a critical look at the opportunities, it is new, is there market for it, and we can help entrepreneurs who want to continue with such an idea to make a good plan. This makes them much more likely to get their plan funded. ”
It is really about bringing very concrete ideas into companies or products, that is what we are entrepreneurs for, that is our sustainable motivation to do this.
Subsidy from SNN
“From LIFE Cooperative, we founded the Pharma Portal two years ago, combined with Pharma Connect Capital. By combining regional strong expertise and risk capital, innovation around new medicines is accelerated. This has already led to various concrete results and companies. AccelMed is a similar concept. Contrary to the Pharma Portal, we have not linked an investment fund to this in advance. We do work closely with the northern financiers and we want to deliver the plans in such a way that they can easily make their investment decision. ”
“By bundling the LIFE Cooperative’s expertise with external expertise, we can accelerate the step from idea to product or company, drive new business and create work for suppliers in the northern region. In this way, we intend to strengthen the ecosystem in the Northern Netherlands and to realize a strengthening for the sector. SNN has recognized this by granting us a subsidy for this. The next step is to attract a project manager who will drive ideas, plans and projects and bring them into contact with the northern investors. ”
“My colleagues and I personally, we are very enthusiastic about this. As mentioned, we are all busy in our own field and we think that we complement each other in this way to achieve concrete results. It is really about bringing very concrete ideas into companies or products, that is what we are entrepreneurs for, that is our sustainable motivation to do this. ”
Source: Groninger Ondernemers Courant, Annette Jonkhoff
Image: Jan Buwalda Fotografie