NEWSLETTER No. 1



Launch

The Holland US Bridge program was officially launched by Regional Minister Bom-Lemstra of the Province of South Holland in the Rotterdam Science Tower January 30th. We look back at the great launch event and thrilled with the positive feedback we received from the attendees as well as stakeholders who could not be present. We are now working on the follow-up of the launch event both with potential candidates for the HUB program as well as potential sponsors.

Official launch by Mr. Christoph Lengauer (CEO HUB US),
Mr. Jan Ohrstrom (Chairman of the HUB),
Mrs. Adri Bom Lemstra (Regional Minister South Holland)
and Jasper Evers (exec director HUB)

I4H

Two days after the launch, Rotterdam hosted the annual Innovation for Health event where a large delegation of the Dutch life sciences sector was present.

The HUB spoke with many people and got the general feedback from many stakeholders in the Dutch ecosystem that there is a clear need for a program like the HUB.

Application and selection

Following the above 2 events, the HUB has started working on assessing the applications of 5 life sciences companiogram and is in active conversations with an additional 5 companies to explore possibilities for assistance. We welcome reach-outs or applications by promising life sciences companies at info@hollandusbridge.com

Geographical Coverage

Currently the program covers companies that are located within the Province of South-Holland but we are working hard with potential sponsors to be able to extend the coverage of the program to rest of the Netherlands as well. Therefore, we also welcome any possible sponsors (governmental agencies, strategic life sciences companies, service providers etc.) to reach-out to us and explore how we can jointly make a positive lasting impact on the Dutch life sciences sector and patients worldwide.

Meanwhile in the Boston area

Just to underline the standing of Dutch biotech in the US, we note the great feedback from Travis McCready (President & CEO of the Massachusetts Life Science Center) in their newsletter on his visit to the Netherlands:

I’ve just returned from a trip to the Netherlands to take part in the Global Scale-Up Program, an initiative which supports ventures in life sciences and medical devices for an international product launch. My trip was an unqualified success. The Dutch life sciences ecosystem is formidable, with some of Europe’s best scientific minds building collaborative initiatives to tackle tough challenges with a patient-centric approach that they hope will yield cost-effective solutions. From what I witnessed firsthand, it is no surprise, then, that the European Medicines Agency has been selected to join this robust ecosystem beginning in 2020. It is my hope that the Dutchand Massachusetts ecosystems can deepen their own cross-border collaboration in a way that accelerates scientific discovery and promotes an unprecedented opportunity for relationship between Massachusetts companies and European regulators.