During the ‘Grand Finale’ closing meeting on Thursday 16 March, the participants praised the informative, structuring and guiding elements of the programme. Without the programme, it would have taken them far longer to find relevant market insights and connections to the right people and networks in the target countries. In particular, gratitude was expressed to the Dutch Embassies, Consulates and NBSOs for their support. All HHINT participants made significant progress in structuring and preparing the organisation for international business, finding new contacts, consortia partners, business leads and - most importantly - sales and contracts in, for example, China, Denmark, Germany, United States, and Turkey as well as in less obvious markets for international starters like Australia, Brazil, Iran, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Thailand.

The TFHC will continue to support and accelerate the international market entry of Dutch start-ups and entrepreneurs so as to further increase the innovation output of the Dutch Life Sciences & Health sector. If you are interested to participate, please contact us through HHINT@tfhc.nl.

It started off with Vivantes, a care provider that offers residential care centres focused on the well-being of seniors in the municipalities of Sittard-Geleen, Stein and Beek. In addition to care in the various complexes they also offer home care in assisted living facilities and in the community. Together with other private and public partners, they have developed a care innovation atelier. Thanks to this atelier, a variety of smart and innovative technologies have been developed that reduce the number of care personnel needed and increases the quality of care. For example, care personnel have access to 24/7 camera-monitoring and movement detection systems that replace the need for night rounds. During the visit to Vivantes all these kinds of innovative care solutions in the accommodation for the elderly were presented.

Next we visited the biotech companies Scannexus and Cristal Therapeutics. First we went to Scannexus, which is an European Centre of Excellence in Ultra-High-Field MRI. With their newly constructed facility Scannexus houses three Ultra-High-Field MRI scanners of 9.4, 7, and 3 Tesla which are intertwined in functions for clinical applications. Next we went to Cristal Therapeutics, a clinical stage pharmaceutical company developing the next generation of nanomedicines based on its proprietary CriPec platform to treat various diseases, including cancer. CriPec is perfectly suited for the development of highly customizable (targeted) nanomedicines with superior efficacy and safety profiles.

The Limburg visit ended with a meeting at the Maastricht University Medical Center+ (MUMC+). The MUMC+ is known both nationally and internationally for its focus on prevention and taking an integrated approach to healthcare: from prevention, promotion of good health and basic care, to top-level clinical diagnostics and treatment. Professors Paul Savelkoul, Pieter van Paassen and Vivianne Tjan-Heijnen shed some light on the respectively microbiology, immunology, and oncology developments in the region. According to Professor Savelkoul more attention is needed in the field of reimbursement of diagnostics and the prevention of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In addition, the pressure of AMR is increasingly rising in the region due to the aging population. Therefore, the MUMC+ places patient safety and interpersonal conduct as a top priority in all of their endeavours. Being surrounded by international medical centres in both Belgium and Germany the MUMC+ has a unique location. Finally, the professors want to draw attention to a regional commitment of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, more understanding of the position of rare diseases, and the limited budgets in healthcare costs.