The Best Biotech Entrepreneur Award® goes to Gilles Avenard, CEO of Acticor Biotech
· The Best Biotech Entrepreneur Award® goes to Gilles Avenard, CEO of Acticor Biotech
· The Best Medtech and Diagnosis Entrepreneur Award® goes to Bruno Brisson, Co-founder and General Manager, Chief Business Officer of Poietis
· The Best Data and Health Entrepreneur Award® goes to Pierre Leurent,
Founder and CEO of Voluntis
Paris, December 7th, 2018 - France Biotech, the leading organization representing French health innovation entrepreneurs (www.france-biotech.fr), just announced the winners of this year’s Health Entrepreneur Awards®, following the release of its “2018 French Health Tech Survey.”
Awarded every year by France Biotech, the Health Entrepreneur Awards® honor entrepreneurs and leaders of the French HealthTech sector who have taken significant steps in the clinical or financial development of their company during the year. For this 2018 edition, entrepreneurs competed in 3 award categories: the Best Biotech Entrepreneur Award®, the Best Medtech and Diagnosis Entrepreneur Award® and the Best Data and Health Entrepreneur Award®.
The Best Biotech Entrepreneur Award® goes to Mister Gilles Avenard, CEO of Acticor Biotech, a biopharmaceutical company, founded in 2013 as a spin-off of Inserm (Paris, France), developing an innovative drug for the treatment in the acute phase of ischemic stroke.
From 1997 to 2010, he served as Chief Operating Officer of BioAlliance Pharma SA (BIO- NYSE-EURONEXT) since he co-founded the company. He has also served as a physician inhemobiology and blood transfusion at the Blood Center of Pitié-Salpétrière Hospital in Paris between 1997 and 2001.
From 1990 to 1997, Dr. Avenard served as Medical Director of Development in the Cassenne Laboratories division of Hoechst Marion Roussel (Sanofi-Aventis Pharma).
From 1976 to 1990, Dr. Avenard held various positions with the National Blood Transfusion Center in Paris, including Medical Director of Bio-Transfusion (LFB), providing human plasma products.
He is an Expert for the Ministry of Research for the CIR (Crédit Impôt Recherche). He has been Administrator and Vice President of France Biotech between 2005 and 2013 and of the AMIPS between 1999 and 2010. He is also a member of the Biotechnology group of the LEEM the French pharmaceutical laboratories association.
Dr. Avenard received his MD as well as degrees in hematology and hemobiology & blood transfusion from the School of Medicine at the University of Paris V.
The Best Medtech et Diagnosis® award goes to Mister Bruno Brisson, Co-Founder & General Manager, Chief Business Officer of Poietis, a biotechnology company specializing in the design of regenerative medicine therapies thanks to 4D laser bioprinting.
Scientific by training (M.Sc), Bruno has a professional experience of over 25 years in biotechnologies.
After beginning his career in biochemistry and technology transfer, he worked in the US especially as a Research Associate and Analyst within a consulting firm based in Chicago, IL. He returned to France in 2001 for launching a biotech start-up incubator and then held various positions in Business, Sales & Marketing (Cellectis, Mauna Kea Technologies, Fluofarma) and management (President and CEO of Biospace Lab).
With his experience Bruno created his consulting company in 2011 and accompanied young biotech/medtech companies for business and corporate development in preclinical research and dermocosmetics.
In 2012 he met Fabien Guillemot, scholar at the Bordeaux University. They worked for two years and came up with the 4D laser bioprinting idea. They founded Poietis in September 2014.
The Best Data and Health® Award goes to Mister Pierre Leurent, Founder and CEO of Voluntis, a company which develops state-of-the-art digital therapeutics to accompany and enhance a specific medication or medical device.
Voluntis was founded in 2001 by three entrepreneurs who believed that innovative medical solutions built with advanced information technologies would improve medical real-life outcomes and thus increase healthcare system efficiency. This would transform patient lives, enhance medical practices and quality of care.
Pierre has more than 20 years of international experience in software medical devices, disease management and telemedicine solutions in Europe and the United States. Before founding Voluntis in 2001, Pierre worked with General Electric Medical Systems and with HealthCenter Internet Services, an online cardiology EMR solution vendor in San Francisco.
In addition, Pierre is a founding member of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance and their first President. He is co-chair of the task force on digital therapies of the “Personal Connected Health Alliance”. He is also e-health advisor within Nouvelle France Industrielle’s health steering committee.
Pierre is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale Paris engineering school.
About France Biotech
Created in 1997, France Biotech is a French nonprofit that brings together the country’s leading innovative health companies and their expert partners. France Biotech’s mission is to support the development of this industry in France by improving the tax, legal, regulatory and managerial environment in which these companies operate and by advocating for their recognition as a leading-edge industry. France Biotech also aims to turn French innovative health technologies into world leaders. The organization, which championed the creation of the French Young Innovative Company (JEI) status in 2004, develops a wide range of actions intended to set the innovative health sector on an independent and high-performance course. France Biotech is chaired by Maryvonne Hiance and has more than 200 members. www.france-biotech.fr
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