CTMM, TI Pharma team up to create new public-private healthcare innovation

The combined resources of two leading technology institutes are set to create a new wave of public-private healthcare innovation  

Leading Dutch technology institutes CTMM (Center for Translational Molecular Medicine) and TI Pharma have joined forces, in a merger that addresses the growing interdependence of medicines and medical technology.  

Impressive joint track records in medical innovation mean that the new combined organization is well placed to achieve both improved healthcare results and wider economic benefits.  As a larger player, it will be able to operate more effectively at both a national and a European level.

Over recent years, CTMM has focused on new technological developments in molecular diagnostics and imaging, seeking new routes to early diagnosis and individualized treatments. TI Pharma has been working on faster development of new drugs. Both organisations benefited originally from three funding sources: the Dutch natural gas fund (FES); pharma and medtech companies; and knowledge institutes. It means that they have extensive experience in implementing, managing and monitoring public-private programmes. Their contribution to such programmes is well proven, with many successes that would not have been achieved if participants had worked in isolation.

The merger contributes to the ambition of the Dutch 'topsector policy' in Life Sciences & Health to create a strong public-private research agenda. It foremost reflects opportunities in Europe for establishing strong public-private partnerships focused on the so-called 'Grand Challenges'. One such challenge, 'Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing' emphasises 'personalized medicine', with individual and tailored innovations that ensure improved and accessible health care for everyone.

Heidi Hamers Hajduk, Managing Director of CTMM, sees the merger as an important step forward: "Public-private partnership allows us to bring new scientific discoveries more quickly to patients, and our substantive support is designed to make sure that projects deliver the greatest possible clinical benefits. This merger between CTMM and TI Pharma is a logical next step, allowing us to extend a proven model across the Netherlands and Europe."

Jorg Janssen, Managing Director of TI Pharma, is delighted to see a successful merger: "As an independent intermediary for public-private cooperation, now able to work on both molecular diagnostics and drugs, we can increase the innovative power of the LSH sector. There is no doubt that collaborations have been highly successful over the last few years, achieving otherwise impossible results, and we are firmly committed to seeing many further good research and clinical outcomes."

Paul Huijts, Director-General of Health, Ministry of Health and a member of the core team involved in the Life Sciences & Health topsector policy states: "It is good to see that the Top Institutes have not only achieved great results with seed finance from the government, but they have also succeeded in embedding the infrastructure and expertise they have built up. Many benefits will continue to arise from the fact that the Dutch are front-runners in public-private collaboration."

The new organisation will retain its present bases in Leiden and Eindhoven with continuation of the brands TI Pharma and CTMM. The merger will be completed in its entirety by January 1^st, 2015.