Clust-ER Health in Boston for BIO International 2023

The US edition of Bio International, the convention that welcomes biotech and life science companies from all over the world for four days, has just ended. Representing Italy in the pavilion organized by ITA – Italian Trade Agency Los Angeles, there was also the national Advanced Life Sciences in Italy (ALISEI) cluster as well as regional clusters, including the Clust-ER Health together with two of its members: Istituto Romagnolo per lo Studio dei Tumori “Dino Amadori” – IRST IRCCS and HNP Healthcare Network Partners.

For years now, Bio International has been an important event for those involved in innovation in the field of health and an opportunity to enter a wider market than the European one, with which many members of Clust-ER Health already have numerous contacts.

For us this is the first time we participate in Bio USA, it is therefore an experiment. The first real added value is to be exposed to companies not yet present in Europe, therefore to access in advance to those who will be our customers of tomorrow.

Jacopo Koch, AD HNP Healthcare Network Partners Italy

The convention, in addition to offering a strong visibility, has always enabled the participating participants, which this year were almost 6000, to discuss thanks to one-to-one meetings: large companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, startups, but also regional and national clusters, universities and research centers and, above all, investors looking for innovative solutions interesting for the international market. For this reason, Clust-ER Health had prepared a brochure with some projects carried out by its members in the fields of pharma, medtech and digital health to be presented as investment opportunities with the aim of bringing projects to a higher development stage. The solutions proposed have attracted great interest from both European and US companies and have been considered innovative and cutting-edge.

The crucial theme of the 2023 edition was undoubtedly, once again, that of gene and cell therapies, on which many companies and research companies have been working assiduously for years, both internationally and on our regional territory. The participation of IRST is relevant in this context, as its strategy of internationalization includes the creation of a strong link with the protagonists of US research in the fight against cancer and at the same time, the investment in the territory of Romagna to create the necessary infrastructure for the development of cell therapies.

We are at Bio USA because we have always believed that scientific research is done in collaboration and not alone. We are therefore looking for an opportunity for discussion with companies, universities and research centres to give our patients the opportunity to have new treatments and therapies.

Luca Battistelli, Innovation Manager Istituto Romagnolo per lo Studio dei Tumori “Dino Amadori” – IRST IRCCS

It was also an excellent opportunity to strengthen the connections with the clusters and the research and technology transfer organisations of the other regions representing Italy that participated in the convention. The common goal is to build a compact and increasingly attractive life science ecosystem to consolidate both the growth of exports that sees us in first place at European level, and the attractiveness of potential investments.

From this convention we expect to promote the Italian field of life sciences, which although small is extremely lively and interesting; we also expect to activate real collaborations for our members and to become the reference point for Italy.

Margherita Fotia, Coordinator of the technical secretariat, Cluster Nazionale Scienze della Vita Alisei

Bio international is an important event for organizations such as Clusters and a cornerstone of our internationalization strategy for the promotion of the regional ecosystem. For this reason we will continue over the next year, and in view of the 2024 edition to be held in San Diego, to build together with our members actions aimed at the specific needs related to research, innovation and investment.