Swiss startups accelerate precision medicine and value-based healthcare

The Swiss Innovation Agency awards qualified start-ups the Innosuisse Certificate to recognise their readiness for sustainable growth and external financing. The startups have gone through the three-year Innosuisse Coaching program and were able to demonstrate remarkable progress achieved during the program.

These are the newly awarded companies:

Oncobit AG - Next Generation Cancer Diagnostics and Monitoring Technologies
Oncobit is a MedTech spin-off from the University of Zurich, developing precision diagnostic and monitoring assays for personalized cancer care. Oncobit’s products aim to provide a detailed understanding of genomic cancer alterations throughout the patient’s treatment history. Oncobit’s IVD-system consists of a digital PCR assay and a software to analyze and interpret the generated data. The company is currently focused on melanoma, but Oncobit’s approach is data-centric, modular, and expandable to other cancer types in the future. The first CE-marked product allows the sensitive and specific detection of BRAFV600 mutations in the patient’s blood over time and can be utilized for the monitoring of treatment response, minimal residual disease, and disease recurrence of melanoma. The product is reimbursed in Switzerland.

Lyfegen – value-based healthcare
Lyfegen is a global health-tech SaaS company driving the transition from volume to value-based healthcare for high-cost drugs, therapies and devices. Its platform helps regulators, pharma companies, and payers adopt value-based payment models by digitising the end-to-end data collection, anonymisation and contract negotiations for all parties to agree upon drug pricing and reimbursement. With Lyfegen’s patent-pending platform, health insurance and hospitals can implement and scale value-based healthcare, improving access to treatments, patient health outcomes and affordability. Today, the company collaborates with some of Switzerland’s leading companies, including, Norvatis, Sanitas, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS,) EGK Insurance, Roche, Johnson & Johnson and Sympany. Based in the USA and Switzerland, Lyfegen has 27 employees.

SEED Biosciences SA – efficient cell isolation
To provide scientists with tools that are gentle with cells, affordable, intuitive, and compliant with stringent regulatory issues, SEED Biosciences developed a DispenCell to enable scientists to isolate single cell lines three times faster and ten times cheaper than existing solutions. The new pipetting robot enables scientists to isolate a single cell as quickly as point and click. This tool aims to become the new standard of care. Through their innovation, SEED Biosciences ambitions to become a market leader and a door opener to personalised medicine and help find efficient treatments. After attracting Molecular Devices as commercial supplier of DispenCell in February 2023, the Swiss start-up expects to triple its revenue in key markets like North America and APAC. 

Positrigo AG – pioneers nuclear medical imaging
Founded in 2018 as a spinoff of ETH Zurich, Positrigo has developed the NeuroLF system, an ultra-compact and dedicated brain positron emission tomography (PET) device. The technology is applicable to diagnose numerous brain-related disorders, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. However, the available PET scanners are large and expensive, which limits the broader diffusion of PET technology. Positrigo’s NeuroLF system aims to overcome these barriers. After closing its series B financing round in September 2022, Positrigo is set to bring the NeuroLF system to the market. Parallel to applying for market approvals in Europe and the US, the company will also set up the required structure and resources to facilitate the commercialisation of its first product.

This article is part 5 of our series with companies awarded the Innosuisse Certificate. You can find the other articles by using the "Innosuisse" tag. 

Ritah Ayebare Nyakato / Stefan Kyora