The European Commission (EC) has approved a €403m ($473.3m) public funding package to support medical device innovation in the bloc.
Involving EU Member States France, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, and Slovenia, the funds have been approved as part of the EU’s second Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) initiative focused on health-related innovation. It follows the first IPCEI initiative from 2019 that focused on the battery value chain.
IPCEI Tech4Sure will support projects by 10 companies originating from the participating Member States. Most participants are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), primarily focused on developing medical devices that apply digital or artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions to advance the predictive, preventive, and personalised medicine (3P medicine) concept.
Developing medical devices in areas including cardiovascular disease and neonatal care, the companies set to receive funding include French company FineHeart which is developing an implantable cardiac management system for treating patients with severe heart failure; Italy’s iVis Technologies with a system for customised corneal refractive surgery; and Slovakia’s Powerful Medical with an AI-based cardiology diagnostic.
Expected to resonate with the EU’s Industrial Strategy towards strengthening the single market, aid for each project is “necessary and proportionate” to fill the respective companies funding gaps.
If any of the projects prove to be highly successful, participating companies are obligated to return part of the aid received to their respective Member State through a claw-back mechanism.
Tech4Cure is due to complete by 2036. According to the EC, the projects under the initiative are expected to create around 800 jobs and unlock up to €826m ($969.9m) in private investments.
Teresa Ribera, the EC’s executive vice president for clean, just and competitive transition claims Tech4Cure will make healthcare “better, faster, and cheaper”.
“The truly innovative projects in this IPCEI will improve patient outcomes, cut healthcare costs, and enhance EU citizens’ lives,” Ribera said.
“Not only that, this IPCEI creates wide ecosystem in the European healthcare sector, where breakthrough innovations are shared along the value chain. This will strengthen the entire chain in the EU and help the green transition of the medical devices’ industry.”
While Tech4Cure aims to drive innovation and strengthen Europe’s innovation ecosystem, geopolitical tensions continue to influence the medical device industry. In June, the EU voted to ban Chinese companies from participating in public procurement tenders for medical device contracts valued at more than €5m ($5.72m) after an investigation found that fair access was not being reciprocated in China. The Chinese Government struck back and issued its own freeze, excluding EU-based companies from procurement for certain medical devices.
