Accessing the EU digital healthtech market from Luxembourg
Accessing the EU digital healthtech market from Luxembourg
Over the past 15 years, Luxembourg has built an ecosystem where healthtech companies can flourish and tailor their offering to the regulations of the EU market.
This year’s HealthIL Week conference organised by HealthIL, the healthcare innovation ecosystem in Israel, focused on reshaping a new healthcare reality. Despite the ongoing challenges since the tragic events of 7 October and the war in Israel, there were over 1,500 attendees at the conference. This shows that healthcare innovation has never been more vital and needs to continue to strive and push forward. “With 98% of medical records digitised, Israel offers the ideal environment for research and real-world evidence, and we must seize this unique moment in time to foster collaboration and advance science,” says Gila Tolub, former partner at McKinsey and Company and founder of Israel’s Collective Action for Resilience (ICAR).
Sector experts believe that the war has initiated a wave of new technological developments and advancement in Israel. Mrs Tolub says, “I imagine a nation that invests in the resilience of its people from birth, detects ‘invisible wounds’ early via innovative diagnostics tools, and aligns individuals with tailored solutions – a nation that provides personalised care to those impacted by trauma.”
Digital health opportunities in Europe
In recent years, Israeli companies have been making efforts to make themselves more attractive to global markets. Operating in a small market, Israeli entrepreneurs understand the importance of scaling their businesses on a global level, tapping into larger markets, and reaching international partners and customers. “Israeli founders need to have a global perspective, to dive deep into customer discovery, to understand the value that their customers need,” says Sam Cronin, Principal & Investment Manager at Arkin Digital Health.
Healthcare ecosystems across Europe are prioritising digitalisation and innovation, and the global economy does not pause. Now is the time to look for interesting opportunities and scale your businesses in Europe. Mr Cronin adds: “The longer Israeli founders stay in Israel and look at the local market, the harder it is to build a healthcare innovation and appropriate business model that truly addresses their international customers’ pain points.” Despite the currently challenging times, the appetite for collaboration and scaling into Europe continues.
Luxembourg: a launch pad for business in Europe
Luxembourg is an interesting starting point for healthtech companies looking to enter the attractive EU market. With a vision built on the shift to personalised medicine, a well-developed data ecosystem and a general emphasis on data-driven innovation, the country focuses on digital health, digital medical devices and in vitro diagnostics. “These three fields are at the heart of personalised medicine as they enable the development of data-based decision support tools as well as new types of diagnostic tests,” says Carole Brückler, Head of Digital Health Technologies at the Ministry of the Economy.
Over the past 15 years, the country has continuously been building a comprehensive ecosystem where healthtech companies can flourish. “Our approach to stimulating healthtech innovation is characterised by the uniqueness of our country: Luxembourg is an economic hotspot with a fast-growing, very diverse population that is limited in numbers,” says Jean-Philippe Arié, Cluster Manager – HealthTech at the national innovation agency Luxinnovation. “We focus on our main strengths: our ability to be agile, and our globally connected economy that makes Luxembourg an excellent springboard for companies with ambitions to grow on an international scale.”
The Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office in Tel Aviv is supporting Israeli tech resilience and facilitates strong business connections between Israel and Luxembourg. “Israeli healthtech startups can quickly build out MVPs and clinical validation that can be potentially relevant to closing the gap between the supply and demand of healthcare services in Europe,” says Yoav Fisher, Head of Technical Innovation at HealthIL.
Facilitating healthtech market access
To nurture and help gain European market access for their digital medical devices, Luxembourg has developed a set of initiatives that address and answer specific company needs. The acceleration programme Fit 4 Start HealthTech helps start-ups align their operational plans with the regulatory requirements for their medical devices in the European market. Fit 4 Innovation HealthTech Market introduces start-ups and SMEs to the regulatory expertise needed to obtain CE marking for selling their medical devices in the EU.
A further programme, the Joint Call HealthTech, addresses companies’ need for clinical investigations to demonstrate the performance, safety, cost efficiency and patient benefits of their devices. The projects co-financed through the joint calls offer patients and healthcare professionals an opportunity to use and try new digital health innovations, and provide companies with precious insights into how their tools are received and performed.
Future ambitions
Luxembourg is home to internationally renowned biomedical research centres, including the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) and the Luxembourg Institute of Health’s (LIH) precision medicine research centre. In the next few years, the dedicated healthtech facilities of the House of BioHealth, which offers over 17,000m2 of office and lab space to both established and start-up companies, will be considerably extended through the construction of the HE:AL Campus dedicated to health and life science innovation. Luxembourg’s future plans for growing the healthtech sector also include the creation of a medicine agency and a fund leveraging private investments in the field, as well as support for companies seeking to make their digital medical devices eligible for reimbursement.
Are you interested in knowing more about how you could benefit from Luxembourg as a launch pad for your digital healthcare innovations in Europe? Feel free to contact the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office in Tel Aviv for further information.
