BioPark Jump Accelerator gets started in Regensburg
BioPark Regensburg GmbH, an enterprise of the city of Regensburg, presented the healthcare management master plan at the end of 2017 (see BioPark PR No. 191). The master plan names opportunities, potential and recommendations for action for Regensburg and the region in this area. A main focus is the promotion of innovation and start-ups in this area at the Regensburg location and in the region of Eastern Bavaria. These require special knowledge and thus support, especially for the regulated healthcare market.
With BioPark Jump, a previously non-existent contact point has been created specifically for those interested in founding a company in the healthcare sector in the region.It supports prospective start-ups in the early founding phases on their way into the healthcare market, from the idea and the development of a functioning business model, to team building and raising funds to commercialization.
Most start-up programs are technology and not industry-oriented. This usually means that the development of an innovative technology and the so-called entrepreneurship essentials are primarily refined over a longer period of time. This is also important in the healthcare industry, but not enough, because the hurdles are higher here than in other sectors and sector-specific issues such as certification, reimbursement and clinical evidence should be addressed at an early stage. "In my almost 25 years of start-up consulting, unfortunately many innovative ideas were often brought up for the start-ups that did not take into account the special requirements in the approval for the manufacture, marketing and sale of the products (regulatory affairs) or the mandatory reimbursement options (reimbursement ) in asking for advice," said BioPark Managing Director Dr. Thomas Diefenthal.
Here BioPark-Jump as "Healthcare Accelerator Regensburg" should remedy the situation. "We provide the founding teams with premises such as office and laboratory space and bring them together with proven experts in our partner network," explained Cluster Manager Dr. Ilja Hagen. The network includes users from hospital and care facilities, health insurance companies, manufacturing companies and people with many years of experience in the field of certification and reimbursement. In an ongoing application and selection process, suitable teams are identified, intensively supported and made fit for the market and potential investors. BioPark Jump will work closely with the existing start-up networks, the BioPark Brain 8 Network, the technology and transfer facilities of the universities and regional industrial partners. Due to the thematic overlap in the field of digitization, there is close coordination with the clusters and activities of the city of Regensburg and TechBase and the Digitale Gründer Initiative Oberpfalz (DGO).
