Displaying items by tag: medical technology

This INTEGRA Inside the Venture project focused on developing a growth strategy for praktischArzt. The consulting project was led by Christioph Seiler and conducted in Fall Term 2015. 

We thank INTEGRA for the great support and the team for their excellent work!

Cytena is a Freiburg-based spin-off company of Freiburg University researchers and BioFluidix in the top cluster microTEC Southwest. Cytena develops single cell printing technology for cell research and professional diagnostics and was founded in June 2014. The technology of the spin-off company has a high commercial and scientific potential. At this point, the Inside the Venture project, led by Mr. Steeb, has started. Maximilian has designed and conducted in-depth market analyses and backed his recommendations to the spinout by a solid foundation of market data and econometric analyses. His supplementary academic paper focused on how venture capitalists assess startups and what they base their valuation on.  

In her master thesis entitled "Identification and overcoming of barriers in technology transfer through academic spin-offs in current practice", Michaela has examined the obstacles faced by academic spinouts in technology transfer from scientific institutions to market in the academic paper part of her Inside the Venture project. In the practical project with LabDisk, Michaela has worked intensively with the founders of the spin-off and contributed greatly to the further development of the business model and the market assessment. She has conducted interviews with decision-makers in clinics and developed a market assessment of LabDisk's potential with a focus on the application of diagnosis of adult and neonatal sepsis. Michaela has conceptualized and conducted intensive analyses of potential customers and quantified the market potential. She has used conjoint analyses following  a qualitative pre-study. Michaela has created considerable added value for the founders. From the results of the market assessment, Michaela then derives recommendations for action that show the spinout all associated opportunities and risks given the several options options to go to market.

To support young startups and give students a chance to leverage their skills, we created “Inside the Venture” – a format where students act as consultants and solve pressing issues for early stage ventures. Concerning this offering, we owe a lot to the student consultancy INTEGRA e.V. They have conducted several consulting projects at young ventures by now, which always turned out as great successes and helped the involved startups a lot. Here is a report about on our first co-operative project, which evaluated the market chances of a new product released by the Mannheim-based tech startup OPASCA.

A multidisciplinary team led by Christian Irlbeck reviewed the market potential in Germany, Austria and Switzlerland for medXguard, which is a personal security system for radiotherapy facilities. To do that, they firstly analyzed the needs and demand for the product, amongst other things by interviewing experts. In further steps, they assessed the legal framework for radiation therapy in the respective regions and the product range of dedicated competitors. They also detected trends, chances and risks associated with OPASCA’s business model and derived alternative applications for medX to advance it.

The whole team worked on a high level of professionalism and with a lot of dedication. Each member invested more than 100 hours into the 2-month project – a sum that seems even more impressive if one remembers that they also simultaneously managed their INTEGRA e.V. obligations and regular student workload!

The project was conducted in Spring Term 2013.

INTEGRA student consultants assisted the Mannheim Pharma & Diagnostics GmbH in refining der business model and adapting their pricing strategy. They developed a highly sophisticated and responsive pricing model.

The Mannheim Pharma & Diagnostics GmbH is developing innovative test patches which can make the detection of kidney and liver dysfunctions much cheaper and easier than before. The technology was initially designed for human application but the Mannheim Pharma started to consider animal health as a highly lucrative market with less barriers to entry.

An INTEGRA team consisting of Tobias Regele (project manager), Andreas Schumacher and Franz Joseph Hinzen came in to evaluate the market chances for animal diagnostic patches. To do that, they analyzed the German and US markets for animal health and interviewed a sample of potential clients and veterinarians about their willingness to pay for the product. They also compared the pricing strategies of relevant competitors. At the end, the team created a quantitative pricing model and sensitivity analysis with different scenarios and drew concrete action recommendations for refining the business.

Thanks to the project team for the remarkable results of the project! The high intrinsic motivation and great professionalism of its members should not go unnoticed. Our special thanks goes to INTEGRA for making such great projects possible and to the team for pulling all these all-nighters to be able to come up with this great due diligence and results in such a short period of time.

The project was conducted in Fall Term 2013.

MCEI will support  4D CATH, a dkfz/ Universitätsklinikum Mannheim medical engineering spin-off, with full-time master thesis student Patrick Bach in the venture and dedicated advise. We are looking forward to an inspriring project and collaboration. The project is part of our Mannheim Accelerator initiative and connects to a very fruitful working relationship.

More on 4D CATH:

Catheter procedures play a big role in medicine. Thousands of cardiac cath lab procedures are being performed in the US alone per year. Chances are that every other person will have at least one procedure in their lifetime. Current cardiac cath lab is being performed similar to old fashioned cinema movies - in 2D. The invention here allows physicians to perform future procedures in 3D. While 3D imaging is being used in almost all fields of medical imaging up to date, real-time 3D imaging was not possible in the past for cath lab procedures. CATH 4D employs a technology that is comparable to mp3 for music or mpeg for the movies - it reduces the necessary data. And since in X-ray based imaging data relates to radiation, CATH 4D was able to squeeze the radiation to such a low level that one could think about true 3D imaging for the cath lab. The 4D CATH method greatly improves the overview of the performing physician and decreases the chances of complications.

Aims of 4D CATH

• To build a real-time 4D imaging platform for minimal-invasive interventions

• To bring proof of concepts towards product readiness

• To creat demand by showing the potential of real-time 4D intervention guidance

Benefits of 4D CATH

Medical doctors:

• More accurate image guidance (spatial position of intervention instruments is always clear)

• Lower education threshold to learn new procedures - more procedures can be offered

• New approaches might become feasible - “turf” moves towards interventionalists …

Hospitals:

• A wider range of procedures can be offered

• Faster procedures

• New technology produces vivid images comprehensible by lay people - marketing fuzz

Patients:

• Safer and faster procedures

• Less invasive procedures

• More target oriented, less adverse effects

For more information, do not hesitate to contact Dr. Sönke Bartling via the MCEI Network. 

Background:

The dkfz, the ifm and MCEI have successfully cooperated on several projects before. Our joint mission is to foster entrepreneurship and technology transfer in the Rhein Neckar Region. In the realm of our Mannheim Student Accelerator, we have sent more than 5 students to support dkfz spin-offs with dedicated master thesis projects so far. There is a very good working relationship to build on. If you are interested in such a project or a technology transfer project for your master thesis, get in touch. Sent an e-mail to  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will figure out whether there is a potential project for you.

Master student Sebastian Schöllig has worked with a Spin-Off of the dkfz. Heidelberg in the context of his MCEI Inside the Venture project. In this context, he has developed a business plan including market and competitor analyses for 2 highly innovative medical technology products. Next to the business plan, Sebastian has looked into theoretical success factors for high-tech Startups and has derived insightful implications for the new business from an academic viewpoint. During his work, Sebastian had a lot of interaction with the founding team that considered his work as highly supportive and a great success.