HealthTech For Care and EIT Health Announce the Success of the HealthTech Innovation Days' Second Edition

French President Emmanuel Macron shared his support for the forum during the opening ceremony, alongside European Commissioner M. Thierry Breton

Support from the European Commission of 150 millions euros to the Venture Centre of Excellence (VCoE) program, co-developed by EIT Health and the European Investment Fund, the VCoE is expected to catalyse over €2bn into the European Life Sciences industry over the next 15 years and will be operated from Paris

Paris, France, October 14, 2020 - HealthTech For Care, a new patient-centred endowment fund - initiated by France Biotech - designed to promote and accelerate access to care for all patients, and EIT Health, the health community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology - Health, announced the success of the second edition of the HealthTech Innovation Days (HTID). The two-day event --held both in Paris and, for the first time, also online-- concluded last week, and set a model for hybrid events in future.

French President Emmanuel Macron mentioned in his opening speech (https://htid-paris.streameo.fr/E1. html - 6'46-15') that 25 billion Euro will be invested over the next 10 years for research, in order to provide France with the necessary means to become the next "Boston"; and 6 billion Euro (1.3 billion of which have already been invested) will be used to develop investment funds labelled by bpifrance with a strong focus on bioproduction and connected healthcare. He noted that from 2021 onwards, the French regulatory agency, ANSM ,will set up a system providing simplicity and visibility for both drugs and medical devices in order to facilitate access to innovation for patients, and that ultimately, the European market must open up and be transformed. The President concluded with: "France must become the place where companies and products are invented, produced and brought to international markets."

European Commissioner Thierry Breton stressed in his opening comments: The crisis has accelerated the digital transformation of healthcare in Europe. Today, there are too many barriers in the adoption of digital technologies, including a lack of unified data and digital structure, as well as a lack of skills and funding. Action at a European level on health data remains crucial and new proposals for 2020/2021 will enable health data to be used for better research and innovation. While Europe has quality talent and innovation, the funding gap with the US is growing (US companies receive 5 times more private funding than their European counterparts).

Mr. Breton concluded: "A major barrier to the adoption of innovative health technologies is the lack of relevant digital skills for healthcare workers and citizens. A truly integrated European health ecosystem with collaborations across industry as well as national borders would help accelerate the difficult transformation we need. No single country or company can solve the complexity of large-scale digital adoption on its own, but by acting in a more focused way, we can all benefit."

Maryvonne Hiance, President of HealthTech For Care noted, "For the second consecutive year, we were honoured by the support of the French President, who sent strong and encouraging messages to the entire healthtech ecosystem in his opening speech. This year, we have given a great opening to Europe by signing a structuring partnership with EIT Health and by welcoming European companies and investors (with more than half coming from outside of Europe)."

Ms. Hiance added, "Once again, HTID was able to bring together world-renowned speakers and experts to reflect on key topics related to the challenges of tomorrow's medicine, and to engender strong institutional support."

The event included over 780 registered participants, 150+ selected European HealthTech companies, 300+ international investors, more than 15 pharmaceutical companies and international experts, and more than 1000 private meetings.

Strong support from European and French institutions

Placed under the High Patronage of the President of the French Republic, Mr. Emmanuel MACRON who shared a video during the opening ceremony (https://htid-paris.streameo.fr/E1.html) and with the presence of Mrs. Agnès Pannier Runacher and Mrs. Alexandra Dublanche, HTID has received strong support from the French government, illustrating the commitment of public authorities for this initiative.

The opening ceremony (https://htid-paris.streameo.fr/E1.html) included speeches from the President of the French Republic, Thierry Breton (Commissioner of the European Commission), Nicolas Dufourcq (DG bpifrance), Jean-Marc Bourez (Managing Director, EIT Health), Franck Mouthon (Chairman, France Biotech), and Jan-Philipp Beck (DG, EIT Health) among others.

"This second HTID edition provided the opportunity to announce, with our European Investment Fund colleagues, the official launch of the Venture Centre of Excellence (VCoE), which is expected to catalyse over EUR 2bn of co-investment into the life sciences industry over 15 years. The European Commission announced a EUR 150m financial contribution to this co-investment programme as an anchor investment as announced by Thierry Breton. Thanks to the financial contribution of the Region Ile-De-France. As confirmed by Alexandra Dublanche, the VCoE team will be head quartered in Paris. In the upcoming weeks, EIF will publish a call for expression of interest to welcome 15 to 20 Venture Capital Funds that will cover all the EU Member States alongside the pharmaceutical and medtech industry members and health insurers to begin co-investing into the promising life sciences European start-up. The VCoE members will be supported with dedicated community management services and an artificial intelligence based platform powered by Skopai, to facilitate their scouting and deal flow sourcing activities and their co-investment syndication rounds," said Jean-Marc Bourez, Managing Director EIT Health France and Head of the Venture Centre of Excellence.

VCoE is a first of its kind open innovation platform in the Life Science sector in Europe aimed at fostering collaboration and investment sharing between the venture capital industry and corporates in order to boost investments in highly innovative digital health and life science start-ups. This enhanced collaboration and investment capacity is expected to boost Europe's innovative life science ecosystem, support breakthrough technologies, ensure products and services are commercialised and scaled in Europe, and help attract talent and innovation from beyond our borders. The VCOE programme will start operations in the coming weeks.

The European ecosystem highlighted by the co-organisation with EIT Health during HTID has been echoed equally favourably by the European institutional ecosystem. The attendance of Thierry Breton, European Commissioner, Internal Market, and the CEO of EIT Health, Jan-Philipp Beck, the Director & Head of Mandate Management of the European Investment Fund (EIF), Hubert Cottogni, as well as representatives of the European Investment Bank and European associations such as EuropaBio, place HTID at the heart of the European ecosystem.

The goal of the event, and of bringing together leaders in health technology, pharma, investors, and patient associations - was to advance access to cutting-edge health technologies for all patients. Over two days, HTID hosted 19 round tables (https://htid-paris.streameo.fr/index.html), welcoming economists like Pr. Philippe Aghion, scientific experts, KOLs, business specialists, with over 550 connections. It is hoped that regular interaction will lead to industrial partnerships and financial support over the long term.

This forum would not have been the same without the active participation of sponsors, which include leading pharmaceutical companies: Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Ipsen, Pfizer, Sanofi, Servier; actors in the healthtech industry: BDC, Dechert, Financière Arbevel, Invest Securities, Sofinnova Partners and institutional partners: BPIfrance, Euronext, LEEM (Les Entreprises du Médicament).

About HealthTech For Care

The HealthTech For Care endowment fund, launched by France Biotech, is designed to support and promote access to care for all and, more specifically, to new medical technologies and drugs. The missions of the endowment fund are structured around three main areas: Supporting the development of the entire health ecosystem, accelerating the development of innovative therapies and treatments, and promoting better access to healthcare for patients in the French healthcare system and more widely throughout Europe. HealthTech For Care is administrated by Maryvonne Hiance, Elsy Boglioli, David Caumartin, Pierre Courteille, Eric Falcand, Marc Le Bozec, Cédric Moreau, Franck Mouthon, Christian Pierret and Christian Policard.

About EIT Health

EIT Health is a network of best-in-class health innovators including approximately 150 partners and is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. We collaborate across borders to deliver new solutions that can enable European citizens to live longer, healthier lives. As Europeans tackle the challenge of increasing chronic diseases and multi-morbidity, and seek to realise the opportunities that technology offers to move beyond conventional approaches to treatment, prevention and healthy lifestyles, we need thought leaders, innovators and efficient ways to bring innovative healthcare solutions to market. EIT Health addresses these needs. We connect all relevant healthcare players across European borders - making sure to include all sides of the "knowledge triangle", so that innovation can happen at the intersection of research, education and business for the benefit of citizens.

EIT Health: Together for healthy lives in Europe. For more information visit: www.eithealth.eu

About HTID^???

The HealthTech Innovation Days aim to drive and foster collaborations within the European healthcare ecosystem. This second edition held by HealthTech For Care, an endowment fund launched by France Biotech, and co-organised with EIT Health, will accelerate patient access to healthcare solutions and contribute to building a stronger ecosystem. This symposium features private meetings between innovative European HealthTech companies, pharmaceutical companies, life sciences-specialized investors, healthcare experts, KOLs and institutional representatives. In addition to the ongoing private meetings, attendees can expect roundtables focused on critical economic and political issues that impact health technology developments. The HealthTech Innovation Days are intended for publicly listed companies whose market capitalization is at least €20 million, or for privately held biotech firms whose drug candidates are currently undergoing late Phase I studies. For MedTech companies, medical devices must have already obtained the CE mark in Europe or FDA approval in the United States. HTID will come back in 2021. http://www.htid-paris.com/