Meet Venture Leader Jannis Fischer’s affordable brain PET scanner startup

29.04.2019 21:24, Guillaume Tinsel

Ten Venture Leaders will represent Switzerland in Boston in June. Meet Jannis Fischer, co-founder of Positrigo. Learn more about his small and mobile brain PET scanner that helps in early diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease and Jannis' expectations on his roadshow in Boston.

Can you introduce yourself and you’re the birth and the “why” of your project briefly?

In 2016 we were approached by doctors from University Hospital Zurich. In anticipation of preventive treatment against Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) within a few years, they predicted an upcoming need for a sensitive and specific early diagnosis. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is the gold standard to detect the biomarkers associated with AD up to twenty years before the first cognitive symptoms.
However, current PET devices are expensive whole-body machines. Thus we started the development of a small, mobile, and affordable brain PET scanner with an ETH Pioneer Fellowship in summer 2017, which resulted in the completion of a working prototype in March 2019.
Although AD is the prime use case, we are exploring other areas of application such as intensive care monitoring and proton therapy.

What attracted you to Boston as a business development destination?

For a medical device like ours, the USA as a whole is an attractive market because it is homogeneous concerning regulatory and reimbursement aspects in particular. Within the country, Boston is an ideal starting point because pharma companies like Biogen are located there. Biogen is involved in several studies to evaluate drug candidates for preventive AD treatment.

What do you hope to achieve from the trip? What are your expectations and goals?

We would like to refine our market entry strategy and find potential partners to start our business in the USA. From US Venture Capital over hospitals as early adopters to pharma companies as partners to bring diagnosis and treatment together – there are many opportunities for us in extending our professional network to the USA.

Why is Venture Leaders Life Science beneficial for your startup?

Venture Leaders gives our startup the unique opportunity to dive into the USA as a place for partnerships with other companies and for Venture Capital as well as a new and promising first target market together with Europe.



What is pushing you towards international expansion?

Our device has the potential to be a link in detecting AD early to initiate a preventive treatment. AD is a problem in all aging societies. Consequently, it makes sense to expand internationally. In addition, the USA as a complementary target market mitigates the risk of regulatory delays in Europe, where with the upcoming Medical Device Regulation (MDR) processing times are currently somewhat unpredictable.

What do you foresee as the largest hurdles towards expansion into the American market?

As for every medical device, regulatory clearance, reimbursement, and liability are hurdles to enter new markets such as the USA from Europe. In combination with the large distance from our home base in Switzerland, it is of prime importance to have reliable partners in the target market to avoid pitfalls in the process of bringing our process to the market.

What makes you most nervous or excited about the trip?

I am very excited to learn more about the USA startup ecosystem first-hand.