The hotspot for Life Sciences - thanks to innovative strength

Researchers also link Brabant’s success in the field of Life Sciences & Health to the high level of ‘innovation intensity’ in the province. The total Research & Development expenditure in the private sector is about 3% of regional GDP. That is more than double the national average (1.15%). In Europe, Brabant is number five on the list of regions with the highest number of patent applications. 

Pharma and medical technology are particularly strongly represented in the sector. Roughly 40% of all Dutch jobs in the production of pharmaceutical base products and pharmaceutical preparations are located in Brabant. Brabant is even more dominant in the production of irradiation, electromedical and electrotherapeutic equipment (such as imaging, health monitoring and detection equipment) with a share of almost three quarters of all the jobs in these disciplines in the Netherlands. 

Research and development in biotech in particular has grown rapidly. The number of business establishments grew by 43% between 2014 and 2018 and the number of jobs almost tripled (+ 260%). This spectacular growth is largely due to the success of the biopharmaceutical research campus, Pivot Park and its neighbours, MSD (Merck) and Aspen. In just seven years, Pivot Park, which traces its roots back to Organon Research, has managed to attract 60 biopharmaceutical research companies and institutes that together employ almost 600 people.

“The presence of an extensive, end-to-end value chain in the field of medtech and pharma shows that Brabant has a mature and thriving Life Science & Health sector”, says Taminiau. “The proliferation of research, production and logistics, among other disciplines, in a relatively small geographical area is also an open invitation to other domestic and foreign companies that want to become part of this ecosystem.” 

One of those companies is BioConnection, which now runs pharmaceutical filling lines in Oss that can fill and pack 40 to 50 million vaccine vials a year in a sterile environment. “We can make a major contribution in the campaign to distribute a coronavirus vaccine or a drug to treat the virus”, says CEO Alexander Willemse. “Our capacity of 40 million vials represents 200 million individual injections. When you consider Europe's population of 446 million people, it's obvious that our production capacity is pretty sizeable.” But Willemse also sees opportunities in respect of new innovative therapies. “Young companies, spin-offs from university research programmes: we can just as easily deliver very small amounts for their first clinical trials. We can even fill vials by hand. We are more than ready to support start-ups and also help them scale up their production at a later stage”. 

Xeltis, which is based at the TU/e Campus in Eindhoven and focuses on developing implantable, flexible heart valves, operates at the opposite end of the spectrum. The process starts with an implant, an artificial valve, which the body gradually absorbs as it builds a new, organic valve around it. The patient's own tissue grows inside the Xeltis heart valve to create a new, natural and fully functional heart valve. The initial successes achieved with this approach have already led to further applications in which the bio-absorbable polymers from which Xeltis' heart valves are made are now also being used to grow blood vessels.

Most people know someone who has had an angioplasty or a bypass operation to restore blood flow through or around (partially) blocked blood vessels to and from the heart, says co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Martijn Cox. “The number of procedures performed worldwide each year runs into the millions. The technique involves removing one or two blood vessels from the patient’s own leg. The leg has to be cut open, which leaves scarring and causes discomfort. And the replacement blood vessels often narrow again after a while. We have now come up with an alternative, based on our technology. New patient tissue grows inside the artificial blood vessel, slowly forming an organic blood vessel that takes over blood circulation again. Another common problem with the very small vessels taken from the leg is that material deposits build up against the walls, causing them to narrow. Our biocompatible materials perform much better in this respect.” 

Philips is a further key player in the field of heart valve surgery. The company that put Eindhoven on the map over a hundred years ago has now completed a successful transformation to become a global leader in complex medical equipment. The company's products range from CT scanners and home monitoring systems to anti-snoring devices and technology for minimally invasive surgery - also known as ‘surgery without large incisions’. A heart valve can even be manoeuvred into position via a small tube inserted through the groin using that technology. The doctors can see what they are doing because every detail of the patient’s interior is visible to the attending physicians in a 3D display. 

Home monitoring and e-health are areas dominated by Brabant-based start-ups, research institutions and established companies. In contrast to Philips, which focuses on large systems, and Holst Centre - the facility used by TNO and Imec at the High Tech Campus - where the primary focus lies on R&D, start-ups like Recover@Home and Mentech are assiduously developing their own specific niches in this field of activity. The former has built a system for home rehabilitation of recovering coronavirus patients and the latter is developing HUME, a system for measuring real-time stress and emotions in vulnerable people, for example in care institutions. The aim is to improve the quality of life and happiness of these people.

The Mentech system consists of a bracelet with built-in electronics and sensors that measure physiological data such as the wearer's heart rate, skin conductance, skin temperature and the speed of change of these parameters. The bracelet is linked to a data analysis platform that uses the measured data to identify stress levels and other emotions. The first version of the system was designed to recognise stress build-up in people who exhibit problematic behaviour, such as people with severe intellectual disabilities or dementia.