INCATE receives Lighthouse Award 2024 from Swiss National Science Foundation
Non-profit organization supports start-ups in the development of urgently needed new antibiotics
INCATE, the INCubator for Antimicrobial Therapies in Europe, has been honoured with the 2024 Lighthouse Award for outstanding Transfer of Knowledge and Technology by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The award ceremony took place on June 27th, in Bern, Switzerland.
The SNSF has developed the Lighthouse Awards to recognize the quality of non-science initiatives such as promoting the transfer of knowledge and technologies, open science initiatives, communication of science, equal opportunity and education.
INCATE supports innovators in combating drug-resistant bacterial infections. It connects research, industry, entrepreneurs, and investors to accelerate solutions for new therapies, diagnostics, and interventions in the fight of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The organization offers advice, a collaborative community, and funding opportunities for selected start-ups to help construct compelling business propositions and attract investors. The partnership was founded as a collaborative project in 2021 by the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans Knöll Institute (Leibniz-HKI), the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) AntiResist and the University of Basel. As one of the central founding parts of this consortium, it is the Leibniz-HKI’s mission to bridge the gap between early-stage innovation and market readiness.
According to the SNSF, “INCATE wins the Lighthouse Award for the transfer of technologies as it plays a key role in addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Worldwide, AMR causes more than a million of deaths each year. In addition, research is stagnating as the development of antibiotics is not profitable. The INCATE initiative seeks to change this. In three years, INCATE established strong links between the biopharmaceutical industry, European institutions and innovators from academia to fill the pipeline with new antibiotics.”
“Let me express, on behalf of the entire INCATE team, how honoured we feel receiving this award. The SNSF and NCCR AntiResist Management supported INCATE’s creative design and implementation from its inception, with the objective of creating an international and impactful organization. Since 2021, we have helped innovators turn university findings into start-up businesses.”, said Helmut Kessmann from INCATE’s Management team. “We would also like to express a big thank you to all the founding institutions as well as our Selection Committee, who play a crucial role in selecting the most promising enterprises.”
Since its beginning, INCATE has been contacted by over 280 start-ups and projects, gathering more than 118 applications. The establishment of a robust pipeline for new ventures has been a hallmark accomplishment, along with furnishing essential support to 33 ventures at Stage I. The current portfolio of Stage I ventures comes from 16 countries so far, with over half not founded as companies when they first contacted INCATE. The technologies selected include traditional direct acting small molecules and peptides but also phages, anti-virulence and other technologies. Notably, two of these ventures moved forward to Stage II. At present, the landscape includes some INCATE ventures that have achieved the coveted “investable stage” status, successfully securing equity investment and forging impactful collaborations. Some success stories from the portfolio include Invitris, smartbax, CC Bio, Disperazol, and Xiretsa. INCATE was listed as a push incentive in the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (HERA) report of the EU commission in 2023.
The Lighthouse Award, together with the €1m funding by the Leibniz Association and other milestones, allow INCATE to continue its commitment to advancing novel and breakthrough technologies and new products to fight the antibiotic resistance challenge.
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