Inocard GmbH is a Heidelberg-based Medtech venture which has developed a gene therapy for heart insufficiency. The founders Prof. Dr. Hugo Katus, medical director of the Heidelberg Clinic for Cardiology, Angiology and Pneumology, and Prof. Dr. Patrick Most, head of the Institute for Molecular and Translational Cardiology at the University Clinic Heidelberg, have researched and fought for their ideas for years. Finally, they could prove the worth of their method in empirical studies which held astonishing results.
After the first business plan of InoCard had been written as an assignment by participants of our course MAN 632: Advanced Entrepreneurship, they entered the Health Axis Europe-Accelerator by the BioRN Network e.V and finally won the "Health Axis Europe-Accelerator Competition" in 2013. The start-up prevailed against eight other life-science start-ups from Germany, Austria and Great Britain to win the Investors’ Choice Award.
Now, they have been akquired by the Dutch gene therapy specialist uniQure for 3 million euros in cash and shares. We congratulate Prof. Katus and Prof. Most for this great success and want to honour their enterprise as a great contribution to society and a noticeable signal for the Rhein-Neckar region as a science location.
The development and first implementation of the Business Plan Competition HAE Accelerator was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of a BioRN Leading-Cluster project.
