Switzerland's TOP biotech startups 2020

29.09.2020 08:00, Isabelle Mitchell

The TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award ranking has become a benchmark in Switzerland’s startup ecosystem. To make sure the startups get all the attention they deserve, we will feature the top startups in each vertical—up next is biotech.

Every year, the 100 most innovative and promising Swiss startups are picked by a panel of 100 leading investors and startup experts. Each jury member nominates 10 Swiss startups that are less than five years old and show the greatest commercial potential. The first-placed company gets 10 points, the second 9, and so on. All these individual rankings are compiled to generate the final TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award ranking, which recognizes the startups that have most impressed all 100 jury members. In the coming weeks, we will look at the top startups in each vertical.



1. Cutiss 
Millions of people worldwide suffer from large, deep skin defects requiring surgical interventions to restore skin function. The current standard of care to treat such skin defects is often not available in sufficient quantities, and patients are often left with permanent, painful, disfiguring, and debilitating scars. Cutiss, founded in 2016 by Dr. Daniela Marino (CEO) and Dr. Fabienne Hartmann-Fritsch (CCO), is able to bioengineer large quantities of individually customized human skin grafts: denovoSkin™ is a safe, effective, and accessible therapy for children and adults who suffer large-scale burns or scalds. The life-sciences startup’s human skin grafts are expected to result in a minimally scarring outcome after transplantation. denovoSkin is currently being tested in three Phase II clinical trials, to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the product. 

2. Versantis
If the liver stops working properly, it can damage other organs such as the brain and kidneys. ETH spin-off Versantis, founded by CEO Dr. Vincent Forster and COO Dr. Meriam Kabbaj, has developed VS-01, a drug that treats liver disease by largely replacing the functions of the sick detoxification organ. VS-01—a liquid based on the body’s own substances—is injected daily into the patient’s abdominal cavity and then drained through a catheter after two hours in the body. VS-01 is currently being tested on its first patients for safety and tolerability, and a phase 2 trial with a larger number of patients is planned for next year, with market approval being planned for 2023. 

3. Resistell 
In the EU alone, more than 30,000 people die every year from infections caused by antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Resistell—co-founded by Dr. Danuta Cichocka, Prof. Giovanni Dietler, and Dr. Sandor Kasas—proposes an alternative to culture-based antibiograms, the current gold standard in antibiotic susceptibility testing. The EPFL spin-off offers a diagnostic device, the rapid AST method, which is based on the detection of movement caused by living bacterial cells. The new method reduces the time taken to get a result from days to minutes, shows which specific antibiotic is effective against the bacteria, and significantly improves the chances of patients’ survival. The first clinical studies are underway, and market entry is expected for 2022. 

 

The best biotech startup according to the TOP 100 Public Vote 

The TOP 100 Public Vote runs parallel to the expert jury ranking and allows the public—everyone with a LinkedIn account can cast one vote—to choose the most promising startup.

Biotech winner Public Vote: KetoSwiss
More than a billion people worldwide suffer from migraines. This and other neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, can be triggered by a metabolic disorder leading to a lack of energy in the brain. Researcher and KetoSwiss founder Dr. Elena Gross, a Venture Leader Life Sciences 2020, suffers from migraines herself and has developed MigraKet, a dietary supplement based on a ketone body that acts as an alternative fuel source for the brain and, thus, prevents migraines. Clinical tests at the University of Basel are extremely promising, and as soon as the FDA approval is available, Gross intends to launch MigraKet in the US—a financing round of approximately CHF 1 million is planned to fund this. 



For more information on the complete TOP 100 ranking, the startups, and the ecosystem, visit the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award website and download the digital version of the TOP 100 Swiss Startups magazine, available in English, German, and French.