Biotech Tuesday’s first ever Innovation Competition was held last month on Tuesday, November 19th at the brand new Innovation District Hall – a special venue designed to promote collaboration and a physical neighborhood of innovation. MedTech Boston, in partnership with LaBiotech.fr, attended this highly interesting event hosted by Seth Taylor (check out MedTech Boston’s interview with Seth here!)
Biotech Tuesday has organized biotech events since 2002 in Boston. While the meetings usually focus on networking, last month’s meet-up provided a special opportunity for local start-ups and small businesses to showcase their biotech products as part of an innovation competition. Of 25 initial project, 6 finalists were selected to deliver live podium presentations before a panel of skilled judges in the biotech space. The judges were:
Attendees had an opportunity to network the hour before the presentations, and over 100 investors, entrepreneurs and scientists were making the rounds, swapping cards and making new connections.
The 6 selected presenters were greeted by a packed audience, and delivered 5 minute pitches followed by comments from the ‘piranha’ judges. While all of the hi-lighted companies presented fantastic ideas, a special congrats goes out to the winners:
Cocoon Biotech took the first prize of $5,000 awarded by EMD Serono. Additionally, Cellanyx received one free month of incubation assistance at LabCentral. Finally, Riparian Pharma was awarded 10 hours of coaching with the business development team of Novartis and $3,000 of chemical reagents from PharmaTek.
Congrats to the winners, and we look forward to hearing exciting new developments!
This summary was written in collaboration with Philip Hemme, Co-Founder of the biotechnology news website LaBiotech.fr.
Shannon is an Associate Consultant at DRG Consulting, where she helps clients in the life sciences approach strategic problems. As a new-comer to Boston, she's very excited about all of the medical innovation happening in her neighborhood, and loves learning about the people and resources that make it so vibrant. Shannon also holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering where she studied the biomechanics of bone regeneration. She can be reached at shannon@medtechboston.com.
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