As 2025 comes peeking around the corner, we invite you to look back with us at some of the most exciting science topics we covered this year. From advances in women’s health, organoids, and organ-on-a-chip models to the challenges of data science and innovations in animal science and sustainable biotech; let us walk you through the Benelux life sciences landscape of 2024 as we reflect on the vast amount of knowledge and know-how characteristic to this region.
Every start-up team ponders the all-important question: how to convince investors to fund their idea? Currently, the fundraising landscape is particularly challenging for most early-stage biotech ventures. A fortunate few are raising exorbitant rounds, allowing them to advance their products through preclinical development, but many others are struggling to find the funding they require. In this article, we share our investor perspective on what can help companies to stand out from the crowd, given recent advancements in drug development.
Leuven, Belgium – December 4th, 2024 – miDiagnostics is pleased to announce the completion of a €30 million Series D funding round, led by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO), the world leader in serving science. This investment will accelerate the development of a groundbreaking sterility test for batch release and related quality control tests for the BioPharma Industry, utilizing miDiagnostics’ proprietary qPCR technology.
Ghent, Belgium, 4 December 2024 – European health technology (HealthTech) is at a critical crossroad. Despite groundbreaking research, a thriving startup scene and ambitious talent, the sector struggles to translate innovation into actionable impact. Challenges such as regulatory restrictions, fragmented markets, and funding gaps are slowing progress, while the clock is ticking and other regions of the world are surging ahead.
Investment led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, with the participation of new and existing investors, including Apollo Health Ventures, NRW.Venture, and HTGF. ● New financing will accelerate preclinical development of Refoxy’s lead program in IPF as well as the expansion of its platform to additional age-related indications.
A world where we can 3D bioprint organs on demand is creeping ever closer to clinical reality, thanks to Belgian efforts to standardize the biomaterials necessary. Achieving this will have profound consequences for organ transplants, disease modeling, tissue engineering, personalized medicine, and drug discovery. But bioprinting success depends on multidisciplinary collaborations between material scientists, hardware manufacturers, clinicians, and other partners. Recently, these collaborations have reached the stratosphere, with a project to study cardiovascular aging with a heart-on-a-chip… in space!
Cervical cancer is largely curable if detected early enough and yet it remains a leading cause of death in women globally. Why? Although researchers recently made the biggest improvement in cervical cancer treatment in more than 20 years, cutting the risk of death by over 40%, effective and inclusive screening remains crucial for early detection and treatment. However, recent research from Belgium suggests that certain populations of vulnerable women or those with a migration background are falling through the cervical cancer screening cracks.
In recent decades, the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors have experienced unprecedented progress, reshaping patient care through the introduction of cutting-edge therapies. A stream of novel drugs has emerged at an increasingly rapid pace, for conditions lacking approved treatments or as improved treatments where existing drugs fell short in terms of efficacy, safety, or convenience. But is the health innovation industry falling victim to its own burgeoning success?
As 2025 comes peeking around the corner, we invite you to look back with us at some of the most exciting science topics we covered this year. From advances in women’s health, organoids, and organ-on-a-chip models to the challenges of data science and innovations in animal science and sustainable biotech; let us walk you through the Benelux life sciences landscape of 2024 as we reflect on the vast amount of knowledge and know-how characteristic to this region.
Every start-up team ponders the all-important question: how to convince investors to fund their idea? Currently, the fundraising landscape is particularly challenging for most early-stage biotech ventures. A fortunate few are raising exorbitant rounds, allowing them to advance their products through preclinical development, but many others are struggling to find the funding they require. In this article, we share our investor perspective on what can help companies to stand out from the crowd, given recent advancements in drug development.
Leuven, Belgium – December 4th, 2024 – miDiagnostics is pleased to announce the completion of a €30 million Series D funding round, led by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO), the world leader in serving science. This investment will accelerate the development of a groundbreaking sterility test for batch release and related quality control tests for the BioPharma Industry, utilizing miDiagnostics’ proprietary qPCR technology.
Ghent, Belgium, 4 December 2024 – European health technology (HealthTech) is at a critical crossroad. Despite groundbreaking research, a thriving startup scene and ambitious talent, the sector struggles to translate innovation into actionable impact. Challenges such as regulatory restrictions, fragmented markets, and funding gaps are slowing progress, while the clock is ticking and other regions of the world are surging ahead.
Investment led by Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, with the participation of new and existing investors, including Apollo Health Ventures, NRW.Venture, and HTGF. ● New financing will accelerate preclinical development of Refoxy’s lead program in IPF as well as the expansion of its platform to additional age-related indications.
A world where we can 3D bioprint organs on demand is creeping ever closer to clinical reality, thanks to Belgian efforts to standardize the biomaterials necessary. Achieving this will have profound consequences for organ transplants, disease modeling, tissue engineering, personalized medicine, and drug discovery. But bioprinting success depends on multidisciplinary collaborations between material scientists, hardware manufacturers, clinicians, and other partners. Recently, these collaborations have reached the stratosphere, with a project to study cardiovascular aging with a heart-on-a-chip… in space!
Cervical cancer is largely curable if detected early enough and yet it remains a leading cause of death in women globally. Why? Although researchers recently made the biggest improvement in cervical cancer treatment in more than 20 years, cutting the risk of death by over 40%, effective and inclusive screening remains crucial for early detection and treatment. However, recent research from Belgium suggests that certain populations of vulnerable women or those with a migration background are falling through the cervical cancer screening cracks.
In recent decades, the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors have experienced unprecedented progress, reshaping patient care through the introduction of cutting-edge therapies. A stream of novel drugs has emerged at an increasingly rapid pace, for conditions lacking approved treatments or as improved treatments where existing drugs fell short in terms of efficacy, safety, or convenience. But is the health innovation industry falling victim to its own burgeoning success?