Advancing Biology and Medicine through Technology - #SwissTech Series
What are Biotech and Medtech?
As their names allude to, they are technologies focused on biology and medicine. Biotechnology harnesses cellular and biomolecular processes to develop technologies and products that help improve our lives and the health of our planet. Medtech uses medical technology to improve people's health by preventing, diagnosing, monitoring, and treating disease.
Biotech’s can be traced back to the 1990’s, and has since then evolved significantly, in part thanks to the the growing interest from multiple fields including pharmaceutical companies, agricultural operations, and medical doctors.
What impact can Biotech and Medtech companies have ?
These two fields have been revolutionised through technology in part thanks to the novel capabilities previously impossible to realise. The computing capacity, and the advances of Artificial Intelligence have brought the fields into new territories.
Bio and Medtech have been supported by the private and public sector which both provide essential elements: the public sector builds and nurtures cross-countries policies, tax-incentives and programs fostering innovation, while the private sector funds the research and development, creating business models
Both have the capacity to impact our wellbeing in the long run, individually and as a society; empowering us to live longer and healthier lives, identifying earlier diseases, and making a better use of what nature brings.
Beyond the opportunities they bring for our lives, they are also a phenomenal vector for economical growth, a fertile bed for startups and innovation, already employing sizeable amount of people in Switzerland and abroad.
What are the latest trends ?
Medical robots: with a global market expected to reach $20.7B by 2027 (source), the robotics field of medicine is definitely one that will bring large VC capitals and advances to the industries of bio and medtech! From performing surgery autonomously to improving the precision of the machines used by humans, we recommend you keep an eye on this exciting trend.
Artificial Intelligence: as previously stated, one of the most prominent technology impacting these two fields is A.I as it allows to analyse faster larger sets of data and derive insights, outcomes, and opportunities. We expect this ever-evolving technology to continue empower the worlds of bio and med tech in the long run. A.I also enhances the processes of healthcare, liberating human time for more pressing needs than looking at data.
Precision Medicine: enabling a customised approach to medical decisions and treatments has been soaring in interest and practice. It is also an emerging approach for diseases treatment and preventions, taking into consideration individual variables.
Bio printing: Printing in 3D to imitate natural tissue has been a natural evolution coming from the enhancements in the 3D printing field, with new types of materials and capabilities. Narrowly tied to this is tissue engineering, enabling the creation of tissue grafts to treat burns or re-create organs.
Telemedicine: the underlying trends has obviously been accelerated by the pandemic, a recent McKinsey report stated that about 76% of US consumers are interested in using telemedicine in the future.
Are there Swiss companies active in this field?
Absolutely! And they are leading global trends! As usual, Switzerland is a fertile ground for innovation in part thanks to the ecosystem comprised of industry organizations such as Swiss Medtech or Swiss Biotech, engaged VC funds and dynamic incubators such as the EPFL Innovation Park
There are always too many companies to list them all, but let’s take a look at a few Swiss trailblazers, beyond the well-known Helvetic pharmaceutical giants:
Aritria Medical actively fighting against strokes with the development of cutting edge technologies bringing micromotion deep in the brain arteries thus improving blood flow
BoneBridge which designs, develop,and produces orthopedic trauma implants
Camlog bringing innovation to implants and biomaterial such as bone and tissue substitute materials
Positrigo a Zurich-based startup bringing digital imagery to the masses, to provide early and reliable diagnostics
SOPHiA Genetics enabling advances through data-driven medicine democratisation on a universal health analytic platform.
As usual, with the vibrant scenes of Medtech and Biotech , it would be impossible to represent every company. If you feel we have left out a key example of Swiss company, please do let us know in the comments.
Next up : Last episode of the series, an Interview with a Swiss Tech Leader
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