The SAFE-N-MEDTECH initiative just kicked off last week in Bilbao, in a meeting hosted by Osteba, the HTA Unit of the Health Ministry of the Basque Country (Spain) in collaboration with BIOPRAXIS-BIOKERALTY. The project is coordinated by TECNAN (an SME from Navarra, with great experience in Nano products), together with BIOPRAXIS-BIOKERALTY (the research branch of the global health companies Keralty and Praxis).
The Project is part of the Open Innovation Test Bed(OITB) initiative from the European Commission, a new and challenging approach towards upscaling the use of nanotechnologies in Europe and abroad. It represents an investment of 18M€ for 4 years, concretely receiving 15M€ from the European Commission.
More than 50 people gathered in Bilbao, coming from 28 entities, from 13 countries to refine the basis of the collaboration, and set the scene for the first years of the Project.
Society and clinical practice pose a growing demand on novel biomaterials, ICT, micro and nanotechnologies for innovative medical devices and in vitro diagnostics (Medical Technologies-MTs). In addition to the challenge of time, the new technologies are subjected to other pressing factors such as qualification, regulation, cost, biocompatibility and the need to be applicable worldwide. In the most recent years it is obvious that nano-enabled MTs can be applied in nearly every medical area, with a major presence and increased importance in cancer, regenerative medicine, advanced therapies, neurology, cardiology, orthopaedics, and dentistry.
SAFE-N-MEDTECH will build an innovative open access platform to offer to companies and reference laboratories, the capabilities, knowhow, networks and services required for the development, testing, assessment, upscaling and market exploitation of nanotechnology-based Medical and Diagnosis Devices.
SAFE-N-MEDTECH will offer a multidisciplinary and market oriented innovation approach to SME´s, Healthcare providers and Industries for the translation to the market of MTs, based on a deep understanding and knowledge of the material nanoproperties, their advance use and applications in MTs and other aspects involved in MTs safety (electric compatibility, electromagnetic properties, etc).
Who s in?
There are 28 partners in Safe-N-Medtech, a great challenge for management, but a huge opportunity to address all the key challenges to come ahead. Research Institutes, Small and larger companies, Associations, Health Technology Assessment experts, Hospitals and Care centres are amongst the partners, and ensure the project can cover all the relevant aspects of the translation of nano-enabled medical technologies.
What s next?
SAFE-N-MEDTECH starts its journey by ensuring its validity with four test cases. During the first years of the intitiative, the partners will develop their services and test them, so that in four years from now, it becomes a self sustainable and competitive services platform for companies to test and ensure their nano enabled medtechs are safe to use!
For more info on the project:
Coordinator: Tamara Oroz, TECNAN (tamara.oroz@tecnan-nanomat.es)
Scientific Lead: Angel del Pozo, Biopraxis –Keralty (angel.delpozo@keralty.com)
Communication: Anaïs Le Corvec, Aura Costa (info@cebr.net)
