Health~Holland Update September 2015

This new Health~Holland Update informs you about developments at Health~Holland, including the new Portal and the progress of the Knowledge & Innovation Contract 2016 -2017. We highlight some success stories in the LSH sector, from different sized companies, like Scyfer, Merus, and BioMarin. You can read more about the announced European Research Council funding or the possibilities offered by the Enabling Technologies Hotel programme. We give a summary of the new Task Force Health Care report about international opportunities and bottlenecks and provide an overview of export products. Last but not least, you can learn more about upcoming events like BIO Europe and Medica. 

Foreword Jan Raaijmakers

Jointly Shaping the Sector

In continuation of the launch of the Knowledge and Innovation Agenda (KIA) 2016-2019, the Top Team and executive office have spent their summer developing the Knowledge & Innovation Contracts (KICs) for 2016-2017. The KICs present an overview of the Top Sector’s financial R&D resources and how these will be deployed to achieve the R&D goals set in the KIA. The KICs will be signed by all contributors during the festive opening of Deltares’ Deltagoot on 5 October.


Attracting leading international biotech companies is one of the goals of Top Sector LSH. We are therefore pleased that Kite Pharma is planning to expand its activities in the Netherlands. Following the acquisition of the NKI spin-off T-Cell Factory by Kite Pharma in March, the company decided to choose the Amsterdam Matrix building as its European business location. Thanks to the efforts of the NFIA, Kite Pharma is considering to enroll clinical research and contract manufacturing in the Netherlands.


Stimulating innovations that will not only improve healthcare, but will reduce healthcare costs at the same time, is another important goal of our Top Sector. Scyfer, a spin-off company from the University of Amsterdam, is developing such an innovation. It’s been great news that the company has received €217,000 of funding from the European FICHe e-health accelerator. The FICHe programme challenges European SMEs and start-ups to develop innovative e-health applications and create sustainable business models. 


The last success I will mention here, is the Enabling Technology Hotels Programme. This programme aims to encourage collaboration between researchers and technologists within the framework of a PPP. As a result, SMEs gain access to important enabling technologies, without the need for large investments or lengthy optimization processes.


These examples illustrate how Top Sector LSH is working towards achieving its mission: vital citizens in a healthy economy. It is great to see the many initiatives that are taking place within our innovative sector. You will find many more in this edition of the Health~Holland Update.


With kind regards,


Jan Raaijmakers
Chairman of the top team Life Sciences & Health