At the end of January 2023, Droplet IV was announced as the Winner of the prestigious Danish Tech Challenge. Only a few months after receiving the honorable award, the company entered BioInnovation Institute’s Venture Lab program. We had a chat with two of the company’s co-founders, Tore Allerup and Marcus Bech, about what they expect to get out of the program and why they embarked on an entrepreneurial journey in the first place.
What is the key driver for Droplet IV?
The key motivation for our company is to create innovative healthcare solutions with a global impact.
Which problems do you aim to solve?
For now, we are tackling the problem of residual medicine associated with infusion therapy. We have invented an automatic flushing device for intravenous (IV) lines – ensuring patients’ optimal treatment while alleviating nurses and aiding in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. As we say, “medicine belongs in the patients – not in the thrash.”
What inspired you to embark on an entrepreneurial journey?
As healthcare professionals who have worked with patients all around the planet, we have seen with our own eyes and felt with our own hands the need for innovation in healthcare to face and overcome current and future healthcare challenges. Therefore, we were inspired to educate ourselves on how to create need-driven innovation in healthcare and embarked on an entrepreneurial journey to help patients and nurses everywhere.
What did it mean for your company to win the Danish Tech Challenge, and why did you find joining BII’s Venture Lab program attractive?
Winning Danish Tech Challenge is something we are immensely proud of, especially as a MedTech company. It has also validated our commercial potential and the impact we can create to benefit global health. We have received an ocean of interest since being announced as winners. We are incredibly proud that healthcare professionals contacted us asking, “when can we buy your product?”
We are excited to be a part of BII’s Venture Lab program for many reasons, but perhaps mainly for tapping into the ambitious goals of BII organization to become a global pioneer in driving the development of life-science start-ups, in addition to becoming a part of this truly inspiring community of ambitious life science start-ups.
How do you differentiate from others, and how do you anticipate making a difference with your health tech solution?
We differentiate from our competition by having a better product. Our product is superior because it was developed with a 360-degree understanding of the problem we were trying to solve, both from a scientific, clinical, and commercial angle. In addition, from the beginning, we have developed our product with the users, the nurses, who will one day be using Droplet IVs every day in hospitals worldwide.
Which milestones do you need to achieve during the Venture Lab program?
We have a multitude of essential milestones in all areas of our company that we aim to achieve during the Venture Lab Program, spanning business development, funding, IP, team, clinical advancement, product development, regulatory affairs, etc. However, one of our most important milestones next year is to reach a design freeze and set up initial production of Droplet IVs that can be used for clinical testing.
How do you benefit from being part of BII’s community?
Joining the BII community provides access to expertise and mentorship, shared infrastructure and resources, investment and funding opportunities, and regulatory and legal knowledge. Perhaps most importantly, it makes us part of a collaborative community that is enormously inspiring and helpful for our journey.