The European Innovation Council (EIC) regularly hosts matchmaking initiatives under their EIC Corporate Partnership Programme. In the EIC Corporate Corner, we discover what makes these corporates tick, what's their approach to innovation and what they are looking for. After the EIC Corporate Day with Fresenius Kabi and Medtronic, we got together with two of their representatives.
On 15-16 November, Fresenius Kabi and Medtronic co-hosted an online EIC Corporate Day in Frankfurt, Germany, bringing together 20 EIC innovators with representatives from the corporates. To better understand the corporates’ approach to innovation, we sat down with Stefan Kolb, VP at Fresenius Kabi and Yves Bayon, a scientist at Medtronic.
Can you tell us about your approach to (open) innovation and the potential challenges you face in that aspect?
Stefan Kolb, Fresenius Kabi: Innovation is very important for us. It’s essential to innovate the products that we are offering to our customers. Regarding open innovation, I believe this will become more and more important for Fresenius Kabi in the future. Our industry is facing several challenges and I believe it will be better to address these together with other companies. Take for instance the challenges that lay ahead of us in terms of big data and the European Green Deal.
Yves Bayon, Medtronic: Innovations are essential for our goal to accelerate access to healthcare technology for more people around the world. Our innovations are coming from the internal expertise of around 12,900 scientists and engineers worldwide, but also from partnerships with external parties in to jointly address existing health system challenges. These parties can be universities, public entities, start-ups and so on.
Recently you teamed up with the EIC to co-host an EIC Multi-Corporate Day. Can you explain the motivations behind joining forces with the EIC for this initiative?
Stefan Kolb, Fresenius Kabi: To expand our footprint in cell and gene therapy, we were looking for new partners. A lot of innovation and science is happening in this area, it’s an exciting field. However, it can be costly and time-consuming for a large corporate to develop new innovations in this field. That’s why we are looking for partners in this area and the EIC Corporate Day was a good opportunity to view many interesting companies in a time-efficient manner. The tailored selection of the EIC was very helpful, the companies were well-prepared, and the pitches were tailored to our needs. We’ve already planned follow-ups with 2/3rd of the companies present.
Yves Bayon, Medtronic: EIC is the number one equity body in Europe, funding many companies. For us, it’s a gateway to a wide array of companies in Europe, making the EIC a logic partner. The way the EIC selects EIC innovators that have already shown proof of concepts or disclosed projects with potential makes our work easier.
What type of partnerships are you looking for with startups?
Stefan Kolb, Fresenius Kabi: If you check the history of Fresenius Kabi, we grew through acquisitions. That’s still a future option to grow the business, but for this field, we have other things in mind. These R&D co-developments can take all shapes and sizes, be it an agreement for joint R&D efforts, but also a stand-alone product or device that can be included in our portfolio. In short, we can tailor it according to the needs of all parties.
Yves Bayon, Medtronic: In our four portfolios – Diabetes, Neuroscience, Medical Surgical and Cardiovascular – Medtronic is striving for improving people’s lives with groundbreaking healthcare technology. Healthcare pathways will be transformed and even reinvented by our solutions in the field of artificial intelligence, data insights, and robotic-assisted surgery. We are interested in partnerships that contribute to achieving this endeavour.
Have you found any interesting opportunities in the companies that pitched at the event?
Stefan Kolb, Fresenius Kabi: We’re planning follow-ups with over 2/3rd of the companies, that’s a great success rate. If we picked 2 or 3, it would have been worth the effort, but we’re following up with over 60% of them, so it’s a very successful event from our side.
Yves Bayon, Medtronic: Right now, it’s too early to tell, we will need some time. What I can say, is that it is always good to meet new companies. We’ve seen some exciting and informative sessions and we got to know plenty of new technologies.
Any advice/tips for companies that want to work with you?
Stefan Kolb, Fresenius Kabi: As previously mentioned, the presentations of the attending EIC innovators were well prepared. We appreciate it when the pitches are tailored, and it immediately becomes clear what innovative technology beneficiaries can offer. In addition, it’s always important for us to understand at which stage of development the innovation is and what the key milestones are. Most attractive for us are technologies with proven concepts. All this allows us to make quick decisions on whether we want to further the partnership or not.
Yves Bayon, Medtronic: For us, companies must be clear and transparent on the technical achievements thus far. If they can explain the next steps and expectations clearly, we will know how to proceed.
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