EIC T2M Venture Building Tech Demo Days: Health and Biotech projects pushed toward market

Brussels, April 23rd 2024

Summary

›The EIC Tech to Market Venture Building Programme ran two Tech Demo Days in Health and Biotech with 16 EIC-funded Pathfinder and Transition teams pitching to expert panels.
›Two highlighted Transition projects were Nano4Rare, a nanoencapsulation platform with a preclinical Fabry disease candidate that has EMA and EC orphan designation, and BIOPURE, which aims to recover monoclonal antibodies as crystalline solids via membrane-assisted crystallization.
›Both teams progressed to the Programme's Opportunities' Exploration phase to receive feasibility guidance and business-oriented recommendations from expert teams.
›Experts praised the programme as a useful reality check and offered practical advice on market focus, identifying payers, and treating feedback constructively.
›The T2M Programme is offering an online info session on 29 May 2024 to present services, participant testimonials, and how to engage as an expert or entrepreneur in residence.

EIC Tech to Market Venture Building: Demo Days for Health and Biotech

In April 2024 the European Innovation Council Tech to Market Venture Building Programme hosted two sector-focused Tech Demo Days covering Health and Biotech. Sixteen teams drawn from EIC Pathfinder and Transition projects presented to mixed panels of market, clinical and business experts to obtain critique and direction aimed at accelerating their route from research to a viable venture.

Format and purpose of the Tech Demo Days

Tech Demo Days are the entry point of the Venture Building pathway. Participating teams pitch their projects to a panel and receive structured feedback intended to test market logic, identify feasibility gaps and highlight operational or regulatory risks. The immediate objective is improvement of the pitch and identification of steps needed to pursue commercialization. Teams that show potential advance to the Opportunities' Exploration phase where business-focused experts work on feasibility and exploitation recommendations.

Highlighted participants: Nano4Rare and BIOPURE

Project	Technology focus	Stage and notable claims
Nano4Rare	Nanoencapsulation platform for enzyme replacement and brain delivery	Transition project with a Fabry disease nanomedicine that earned EMA and EC orphan designation in 2021 and shows superior preclinical efficacy, including brain efficacy not achieved by marketed ERTs
BIOPURE	Membrane-assisted crystallization to recover monoclonal antibodies as crystalline solids	Transition project aiming to replace chromatographic capture steps by selectively crystallizing mAbs directly from clarified cell culture fluid

Nano4Rare: what is being claimed and what it implies

Nanoencapsulation platform:Nano4Rare develops a platform that encapsulates therapeutic proteins in nanoscale carriers. The intended benefits are improved biodistribution, protection of payloads from degradation and, crucially for their Fabry candidate, improved delivery to the brain. Such platforms can change pharmacokinetics and tissue targeting but bring additional development complexity including scaled manufacturing under Good Manufacturing Practice, reproducibility, regulatory scrutiny over particle safety and added cost in clinical development.

Fabry disease and orphan designation:Fabry disease is a lysosomal storage disorder that is treated in many patients by enzyme replacement therapy. Nano4Rare reports that their lead nanomedicine has orphan designation from EMA and the European Commission since 2021. Orphan designation supports regulatory incentives but does not prove clinical benefit. The team reports superior preclinical efficacy and brain activity relative to marketed ERTs. That is notable because brain penetration is a key unmet need in many lysosomal storage disorders. However preclinical efficacy must be validated in clinical trials and safety, immunogenicity and manufacturability will be central hurdles.

BIOPURE: an alternate downstream route for monoclonal antibodies

Membrane-assisted crystallization explained:BIOPURE uses membranes to induce selective crystallization of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) directly from clarified cell culture fluids. The proposition is to capture mAbs as crystalline solids rather than using conventional chromatography for capture and purification. Crystallization can deliver high concentration solids that simplify transport and storage and potentially reduce costs. But replacing chromatography presents challenges including crystal form control, downstream redissolution, consistent product quality attributes, and regulatory acceptance for therapeutic proteins.

Both technologies illustrate a common pattern in deep tech life sciences. They promise step-change improvements over incumbent methods but also create distinct development pathways that must reconcile technical scale-up, regulatory data packages, quality control and reimbursement models if they are to become commercial products.

Participants' perspectives on the Demo Days

Representatives from both Transition projects said the Demo Days were practically useful. Nora Ventosa of Nano4Rare said participation in the Tech to Market Venture Building Programme helped improve their pitch deck. Alberto Figoli of BIOPURE reported that the event highlighted the main issues for potential commercialization and taught them how to present concisely in a limited time window. Both valued the breadth of expert viewpoints on the panels.

Value of expert feedback for researchers:Presenters said receiving feedback in front of a multidisciplinary panel was one of the most interesting elements. They gained insights both on technical feasibility and on commercial angles they must address, such as competitive positioning and go to market strategy.

Experts' observations and practical advice

The organisers interviewed two experts who participated in the programme. David Vittecoq, CEO of CAERUS MEDICAL, framed the Venture Building Programme as an opportunity for early stage teams to be challenged and guided toward a less difficult path to market. Orily Pratt, a business coach and mentor, described the programme as a reality check in a relatively safe environment and noted the confidence that innovators can derive from peer interaction.

Two practical pieces of advice from Orily Pratt:First, thoroughly understand the market by defining the target customers, their pain points and why they would invest in the innovation, and by mapping competitors. Second, separate personal identity from the project and be prepared for criticism. Commercialisation is typically a long and frustrating process and innovators must gather advice from multiple sources and maintain objectivity.

David Vittecoq's two focus points:He advised teams to clarify the pain points they are solving so they can focus on an initial application. He also urged early definition of who will pay for the solution to identify the first customer segment to address. In other words know the buyer and the use case early and test these assumptions.

Programme progression and next steps for teams

Nano4Rare and BIOPURE progressed to the Opportunities' Exploration phase. In that phase they will receive feasibility guidance from a team of business-savvy experts who will produce recommendations for improvement. The Venture Building Programme overall is structured to move teams from pitching to business validation and team building before offering on-demand services for venture creation.

Venture Building phase	Purpose
Tech Demo Days	Initial pitch to panels and collection of expert feedback
Opportunities' Exploration	Feasibility assessment and business recommendations from experts
Team creation	Recruitment support, access to entrepreneurs in residence and talent brokerage
Venture support services	Advisory input on IP, finance, HR and other domains for building a venture

Info session: Journey towards Entrepreneurship and Venture Building

The EIC Tech to Market Programme organised an online info session on 29 May 2024 to explain services, present testimonials and answer questions. The session targeted beneficiaries eligible for these services and potential experts or entrepreneurs in residence who may support innovators.

Item	Detail
Date and time	29 May 2024 from 15:00 to 16:45 CET
Agenda highlights	Intro by EIC; overview of Entrepreneurship Programme; overview of Venture Building Programme; participant testimonials; Q and A
Registration deadline	27 May 2024
Platform	Webex link provided after registration

Wider context and critical perspective

The EIC Tech to Market (T2M) pack of services is intended to convert research outputs into ventures through training, coaching and venture building. Since January 2023 more than 280 projects were reported as onboarded to T2M activities. That scale suggests real reach, but it does not by itself prove long term commercial impact or follow-on financing success for participants. The Venture Building programme page also notes that T2M activities were paused and expected to resume in 2026. Pauses and changes in implementation are not uncommon in large public programmes yet they can affect continuity for teams that rely on these services.

Common barriers to watch for:Projects in health and biotech commonly face regulatory complexity, expensive clinical development, manufacturing scale-up challenges and uncertain reimbursement pathways. Technical novelty such as nanoparticle carriers or crystallized mAb products increases regulatory scrutiny and may slow time to market. Venture building services can help identify these barriers, but teams still need clear milestones, funding strategies and credible manufacturing and regulatory plans to move from preclinical promise to commercial product.

Eligibility, roles and how to engage

The EIC T2M Entrepreneurship services have been open to projects originating from EIC Pathfinder, EIC Transition, EIC Seals of Excellence, Women TechEU, FET Flagships and ERC Proof of Concept. The Venture Building programme is focused on EIC Pathfinder and Transition projects. The programme had active calls for external experts and entrepreneurs in residence to join talent pools, though applications were closed at the time the page was published and expected to reopen in 2026.

Organisations and individuals interested in the programme could contact the EIC Community via the platform and register for info sessions. For immediate questions about the Venture Building Programme or the Entrepreneurship Programme the EIC Community contact page provides a subject-based helpdesk selection to route queries efficiently.

Final note

The Tech Demo Days provide an accessible forum for early-stage life science teams to collect market-focused critique and to begin a structured venture-building pathway. The value of the initiative will be measured over time by how many projects convert into sustainable ventures, achieve regulatory progress or secure industrial partnerships. Meanwhile teams should treat the feedback as actionable input and prioritise market clarity, payer identification and realistic technical milestones.