Funding of Franco-Canadian collaborative project and joint event on artificial intelligence among planned actions to bring medical device companies closer in 2017.

Paris, France, February 6, 2017 – Medicen Paris Region, Europe’s leading healthcare cluster, today announces it is strengthening ties with the MEDTEQ cluster and the Greater Montreal ecosystem through fostering and financing a bilateral collaborative project between France and the Canadian province of Quebec. In June 2017 the partners will organize a joint event on artificial intelligence applied to medical imaging and precision medicine. In addition, companies will be offered a soft-landing program in Quebec, working with partner organizations Montreal International, the Montreal In Vivo and Techno Montréal clusters and Business France.

As part of this co-operation, Medicen Paris Region attended the 5th Annual MEDTEQ Forum held on January 31, 2017 in the new buildings of the Sainte-Justine Mother and Child University Hospital Center in Montreal. The French cluster presented its activities to the 250 participants and introduced a delegation of six member companies: Z3DLAB, Evolucare Imaging, H4D, eVeDrug, Meta-Coaching and EOS-Imaging. Meetings with world leaders in artificial intelligence such as the Institute for Data Valorization (IVADO), a winner of the APOGEE funding, and the Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithm (MILA), headed by Professor Yoshua Bengio, could lead to major partnership opportunities for the Medicen Paris Region ecosystem.

 

“This enhanced partnership between Medicen Paris Region, MEDTEQ and the Greater Montreal ecosystem is an excellent platform for the international development of our member companies,” said Christian Lajoux, president of Medicen Paris Region. “This is the perfect example of the efficiency of our international activities. We are aiming for long-term agreements in order to give our members more opportunities for increased visibility and possible meetings with potential industrial or academic partners. We will develop a range of such activities in 2017 to meet the needs of our members.”

“Medical technologies have the potential to transform health networks for the benefit of all patients across the globe. Collaborations like this one between Medicen and Medteq help accelerate that process,” said Diane Côté, CEO of the Medteq consortium. “In a world where technologies converge, pooling the talents of our scientists and clinicians, along with the entrepreneurial spirit of our industrialists, is a source of untapped creativity.”

 

This strong partnership between Medicen Paris Region and its partners developed during the first Franco-Quebec Health Innovation Forum (FFQIS) which took place at Polytechnique Montréal in October 2016. At the time, Synakene and Suricog, two of Medicen Paris Region members, were able to observe the diversity of the medical technologies’ ecosystem in Montreal (medical imaging, biomaterials and e-health), facilitated by the MEDTEQ cluster, the Montreal ecosystem combining academic, clinical and industrial excellence. Medicen initiated first contacts with researchers and clinicians in Montreal, which are still ongoing today.

In this capacity, clinicians from the Montreal University Hospital (CHUM) are involved in a joint French-Canadian prospection group looking into unmet clinical needs in the field of ultrasound. A call for proposals has been launched titled SUMIL (Standardization of Ultrasound Multiparametric Imaging for Liver), in order to help foster collaborative public-private projects between France and Canada in 2017. 

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About MEDTEQ

MEDTEQ is the Quebec Consortium for Industrial Research and Innovation in Medical Technology. Its mission is to accelerate the development of innovative technological solutions to improve patients’ health and quality of life. MEDTEQ supports their validation and integration in the healthcare system and their impact, both locally and globally, by bringing together the complementary skills of industrial and academic partners with those of healthcare providers. www.medteq.ca

About Medicen Paris Region

Medicen Paris Region is a competitiveness cluster for innovative health technologies, with national and international scope. With nearly 300 companies, research centers, universities, hospitals and local authorities as members, it aims to position the Paris region as Europe’s leading health cluster. It focuses on five strategic areas: biological diagnostics, diagnostic and interventional imaging, regenerative medicine and biomaterials, digital health and translational medicine. In close collaboration with local, regional and national healthcare innovation players, Medicen Paris Region aims to:

• Foster the emergence, development and funding of certified collaborative projects in the healthcare sector, in order to create economic value and jobs
• Increase the international development of innovative startups and SMEs
• Strengthen the attractiveness of the Paris region, which represents more than 50% of life sciences activity in France

Since the creation of the cluster in 2005, 57 innovative products have been launched in the imaging, medical devices and biological tools sectors. The cluster has certified 289 projects. They received funding from the French government (French Inter-Ministry Fund FUI, Structuring Projects fund), the public investment bank Bpifrance, the National Research Agency, the European Regional Development Fund, the Investments for the Future program and/or local authorities, and the Paris region. Total investment is close to €1.2 billion and €533 million of public aid. www.medicen.org