A HUB AT THE SERVICE OF INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE
Created in September 2018, the Pfizer Healthcare Hub (PHH) France is an acceleration program supported by Pfizer through its endowment fund, Pfizer Innovation France, and created in partnership with the Institut du Cerveau and its health incubator iPEPS - The Healthtech Hub, intended to support the development of digital health solutions.
Its objective is twofold:
-
Improve the care pathway for better patient care
-
Facilitate the management of the disease on a daily basis to improve the patient's overall quality of life
The selected startups benefit for nine months from a unique expertise program with workshops in collective sessions and individual coaching to give them the keys to regulatory strategy, market access and fundraising.
The Brain Institute - which mobilizes researchers, clinicians and entrepreneurs on a daily basis to advance fundamental research and explore its applications - provides easy access to the Institute's platforms and, through its iPEPS incubator - The Healthtech Hub, its recognized know-how in the support of HealthTech startups.
Pfizer employees are also part of this program through a dedicated mentoring system. The objective is to enable startups to better understand the major challenges of the pharmaceutical industry and to provide them with expertise on medical, pharmaceutical, clinical, regulatory or market access issues.
"Because of the nature of our activities, particularly at the heart of the recent health news, we work every day with many health players, both private and public. This digital innovation program opens us up to new technology players in health, complementary to our mission of developing medical advances that change the lives of patients.
With the PHH France set-up, a Pfizer mentor - in duo with a sponsor of the Management Committee - is dedicated to each startup to support it during the nine months of the programme. The projects thus benefit from an acceleration and deepening of their development thanks to our expertise and connection with our network.
For the selected startups, the PHH is a privileged access to the multiple expertise of our employees in the medical, regulatory, commercial fields ... in France and internationally. With our partner, we have set ourselves the rule of having a very open approach with the project leaders: they are the ones who present their challenges to us and share their questions, from which their mentor will guide them, inform them but also challenge them in order to be the most useful to them in the shortest possible time.
However, we quickly realized that having shared goals between mentors and mentees was necessary for the success of the programme, but not sufficient. Time, decision-making, funding, motivations, personal issues are all extremely different parameters whether you are within a large company like ours or at the head of a startup. These are two radically different perspectives that we had to reconcile.
With the iPEPS, we asked SaMaTransformation to set up personalized support for mentor-mentee pairs so that all parties maximize the benefits generated by the program.
Patrick Giry-Deloison contributes both his business experience, with large groups and startups, and operational tools and methods to collaborate effectively. This combination, together with his particular attention to the human dimension of relationships, significantly contributed to the success of our program.
We have benefited from his method which gives all participants - mentees, mentors and sponsors - a 360 ° vision of the challenges and constraints of each and every one, both from their personal point of view and that of their company. The longitudinal follow-up that he performs throughout the program makes it possible to adjust, pace and energize interactions. This agile “business coaching” is a key factor in the success of PHH, of which I am sure that the benefits for both Pfizer and startups will continue to be felt for a long time. "
Olivia Bussod, Responsable Alliances Stratégiques – Pfizer France
Located in the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, the Brain Institute is a scientific and medical research center of international excellence, innovative in both its design and its organization.
By bringing together patients, doctors, researchers and entrepreneurs in one place, the goal is to enable the rapid development of treatments for lesions of the nervous system so that they can be applied to patients as quickly as possible. Coming from all walks of life and all countries, the best scientists are developing the most cutting-edge research in this field.
Within the Institute, its iPEPS incubator - the Healthtech Hub is the first innovation accelerator dedicated to brain diseases in France.
« Our mission is to provide the best expertise by promoting meetings and collaborations between all health players. Based on collective intelligence, iPEPS - the Healthtech Hub aims to develop the bridge between research and innovation in the service of health.
The sharing of competencies and know-how with our partners is essential to meet these objectives. Patrick and SaMaTransformation are among these partners who are essential to the success of our mission. »
Julien Elric, Responsable de l’incubateur iPEPS – The Healthtech Hub