Ferring Pharmaceuticals and BioInnovation Institute have entered a collaboration agreement.
Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a leader in reproductive medicine and maternal health, and in specialty areas within gastroenterology/ microbiome and uro-oncology. Ferring’s mission is to develop treatments to help people build families and live better lives and the company’s therapeutic expertise is key to the new collaboration.
“Our collaboration with Ferring Pharmaceuticals is BII’s first industry partnership. Reproductive diseases and women’s health are areas with many unmet needs and societal issues, and BII needs to help mature new solutions. Ferring is a world leader in this space and an ideal partner for us in this strategic area”, says Jens Nielsen, CEO of BioInnovation Institute.
Ferring has R&D centers in 12 countries with the main research and development hub located in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The company will assist BII in identifying the most promising projects and early start-ups in this space to foster innovation. Ferring Pharmaceuticals will also provide aligned early-stage start-up companies in BII’s programs access to their industry R&D expertise and specialist knowledge, and general scientific and business mentoring.
“At Ferring, we foster innovation both internally and externally, and we share the same passion for science and the same ambitions for the reproductive space as BioInnovation Institute. Every day, we are in dialogue with life science innovators who want to develop their research to reach the market, and an incubator such as BII is a fantastic vehicle for that”, says Declan Jones, VP, Head of External Innovation & Scientific Licensing at Ferring Pharmaceuticals.
Jens Nielsen expects the long-term collaboration to evolve as the benefits from joining forces unfold. BII is currently revising in which other strategic areas to pursue collaborations.
“As a non-profit foundation, we are focused on fostering areas of innovation that for one reason or another have not been able to attract sufficient funding. The reproductive space is an example of that, and our collaboration with Ferring will hopefully play a role in that change”, says Jens Nielsen.
In 2020, BII funded Professor Henriette Svarre Nielsen with DKK 6M in the Faculty program to pursue scientific research in the early diagnosis of pregnancy loss. Learn more about the project.
Read more about Ferring Pharmaceuticals at BII’s partner page.
About Ferring Pharmaceuticals
Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group committed to helping people around the world build families and live better lives. Headquartered in St-Prex, Switzerland, Ferring is a leader in reproductive medicine and women’s health, and in specialty areas within gastroenterology and urology. Ferring has been developing treatments for mothers and babies for over 50 years and has a portfolio covering treatments from conception to birth. Founded in 1950, privately-owned Ferring now employs around 6,000 people worldwide, has its own operating subsidiaries in nearly 60 countries, and markets its products in 110 countries.
Find more information about them here.
About the BioInnovation Institute Foundation
The BioInnovation Institute foundation (BII) is an international non-profit foundation supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. BII operates an incubator to accelerate world-class life science innovation that drives development of new solutions by early life science start-ups for the benefit of people and society.
BII, located in Copenhagen, Denmark, offers start-ups and early-stage projects within health tech, therapeutics and bio-industrials state-of-the-art labs, vibrant office facilities, business development, start-up business incubation, access to high-level mentoring and international networks, plus unique funding opportunities of up to 1.3 million euro per start-up and 2.4 million euro per project.
Since the inauguration of BII in November 2018, BII has awarded 48 million euros to 85 high-growth start-up companies.