BIOVISION 2015: Innovation And Interdisciplinarity At The Core Of A Renewed Forum

See you next April in Lyon for BIOVISION 2016

Lyon, France, April 17, 2015 – BIOVISION, the annual forum organized by the Fondation pour l'Université de Lyon, devoted to research and action for life sciences, closed its doors yesterday with the 2015 awards.

"Personalized medicine and its future impact on global health and the economy were at the core of the prospective debates," said Didier Hoch, president of BIOVISION. "As for the action side, more than 100 projects and start-ups from different countries in Europe and beyond, working in various fields (life sciences, environment, digital and other technologies) were presented. The Big Booster program that we are launching will allow us to strengthen our international foothold and help projects and entrepreneurs to thrive, starting with the best ones from those two days."

"This 10th edition of BIOVISION was a success, including high-level debates between participants from 50 different countries," said Alain Mérieux, president of the Fondation pour l’Université de Lyon and president of the Institut Merieux. "BIOVISION attracts many projects that foster innovation and help start-ups grow. This strengthens the attractiveness of our territory as a hub for innovative entrepreneurship; Lyon is positioned as the reference point in Europe for the creation and acceleration of start-ups. The Fondation pour l’Université de Lyon contributes to this ambition."

BIOVISION and Lyon Start-Up winners

Prizes were awarded during the BIOVISION closing ceremony in the presence of Alain Mérieux, president of the Fondation pour l’Université de Lyon and president of Institut Mérieux, and Gérard Collomb, chairman of Lyon Metropole and Senator-Mayor of Lyon.

A new prize, the BIOVISION Next/TWAS/University of Lyon/SATT Pulsalys Lyon St Etienne Award, was given to Mohamed Abdelsalam of the University of Sao Paulo/School of Pharmaceutical Sciences. It was presented by Peter McGrath, coordinator, TWAS (The World Academy of Sciences)/IAMP (the InterAcademy Medical Program), Frank Debouck, director of the Ecole Centrale de Lyon, representing the president of the University of Lyon, Khaled Bouabdallah, and Marc Legal, CEO of Pulsalys. This award recognizes the most promising project.

Michel Goldman, co-chair of the Catalyzer selection committee, professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and former executive director of the Innovative Medicine Initiative, granted the 2015 BIOVISION Catalyzer Award to Diabeloop. He also gave two special awards to Cartimage and the GitHealth project supported by Novadiscovery. These awards recognize projects with high innovation potential that will provide benefits to both individuals and society.

The Investor Conference biotech and medtech awards, presented by Florent Gros, managing director, Novartis Venture Fund, and co-president of the selection committee were respectively assigned to Alizé Pharma and FineHeart. The Investor Conference Special Prize went to Kallistem. They reward companies identified by the selection committee for their particularly promising approach to innovation and for their contribution to medical and societal advances.

"Money is coming". In order to reconcile finance and the real economy, Jean Rognetta, president of PME Finance, awarded four prizes that highlight growth and innovation:

• For the two largest IPOs on Euronext since BIOVISION 2014: Cerenis in biotech and Supersonic Imagine in medtech

• For the two listed companies with the fastest growth in turnover over the last three years: Valneva in biotech and Diaxonhit in the medtech category

To conclude, the Lyon Start-up finalists were announced:

In the ‘project with potential’ category, the jury looked at the level of innovation, the ability to answer an existing need, the value creation, the potential and the feasibility:

• The 1st prize was awarded to Prototypo, the 2nd prize went to the IceStick project

In the ‘company with potential’ category, the innovative nature and the potential for job creation were evaluated:

• The 1st prize went to Watch Live and the 2nd prize to Chantiers Passerelles

Don’t miss the next edition of BIOVISION in April 2016 in Lyon, with a focus on prevention.

About BIOVISION

BIOVISION is an international forum devoted to life sciences. The aim is to discuss forward-looking opportunities and facilitate collaboration between the various stakeholders, to encourage innovation and ultimately ensure public access to knowledge and solutions. Founded in 1999, BIOVISION is driven by an independent not-for-profit organization, the Foundation for the University of Lyon in France (the Fondation pour l’Université de Lyon).

The forum has a global reach and brings together a large number of leading figures every year in Lyon. Participants include researchers, policy-makers, investors and entrepreneurs; from startups to multinationals. Together, these multidisciplinary decision-makers reflect on the future advances in life sciences and consult on how to convert discoveries by researchers into practical, innovative solutions with a public health benefit. They directly address business models and funding solutions.

To foster innovation, BIOVISION has introduced two themed sessions where project owners and leaders of innovative start-ups can pitch their vision.

The BIOVISION Catalyzer is organized jointly with Lyonbiopôle, a world competitiveness cluster in the field of life sciences, to promote projects originating from public-private partnerships.

The BIOVISION Investor Conference is organized jointly with Lyonbiopôle and France Biotech to discuss funding and identify promising start-ups and innovative companies. An online networking platform and on-site meeting areas foster and support these discussions.

BIOVISION also hosts live-streamed sessions to raise awareness and engage communities in scientific issues around the health care challenges of tomorrow.

BIOVISION enjoys the support of the Greater Lyon and the Rhône-Alpes Regions.

More information

About the Fondation pour l’Université de Lyon

Chaired by Alain Mérieux, the purpose of the Fondation is to support the University of Lyon in its ambition to be one of Europe’s ten largest higher education and research clusters. The seven active founders of the Fondation (banking group BNP Paribas, the French Deposits and Consignments Fund, CIC bank, retailer Casino, the Institut Mérieux, pharmaceutical group Sanofi and Lyon-based domestic appliance manufacturer SEB) help it to fulfill its remit of promoting the international recognition of the University of Lyon, contributing to its excellence and strengthening its ties with the territory. For the Fondation, BIOVISION is a key element of the region’s international profile in one of its areas of excellence; the life sciences. The forum also contributes directly to the economic development of the area through innovation.

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