Bernese start-up AlveoliX has received the Swiss Medtech Award and CHF 75,000 in prize money. Founded in 2019, AlveoliX has created a small-scale replica of the human lung called “Lung-on-Chip” that can mimic respiratory motions. According to the jury, this organ-on-chip technology has the potential to establish itself as the new standard in preclinical drug development, as a leading alternative to animal testing, and to significantly advance personalized medicine.
 
Drs. Nina Hobi and Janick Stucki, co-CEOs of AlveoliX, and their team have been able to recreate human lung function on a miniature scale. The lung-on-chip model simulates the microenvironment of the lung, including its respiratory movements. A thin, porous membrane facilitates the cultivation of human lung cells under extremely realistic physiological conditions. In this natural environment, cells react as they would in the human body.

“Our technology increases the efficiency and safety of drug development and enables more personalised testing by using cells from each individual patient on the chip. In the future, our technology will help to reduce costs, as well as animal testing,” Stucki said, describing the young company’s goal.

“We are already collaborating with large pharmaceutical companies who are using our technology to test their drugs in development. We then compare the results of our chip with existing data from preclinical and clinical studies,” said Hobi.
 
Peter Biedermann, director of Swiss Medtech, is impressed not only by the inventive achievements, but also by the company’s entrepreneurial vision to achieve a breakthrough in the marketing of its technology. “In Switzerland, resourceful ideas unfortunately too often fail on the way from prototype to market-ready product. Our country must make additional efforts to overcome this gap in translation. This would not require more funding, but rather a targeted redirection of existing funds to innovation projects with the greatest market potential, and the payment of capital directly to companies,” he said, describing one of the goals the association is advocating at a political level.

According to jury president Prof. Mirko Meboldt, ETH Zurich, AlveoliX and its interdisciplinary team have created a product “that sets new standards in drug development and has the potential to become a forerunner in the field of personalized medicine.”
 
The jury and the audience also honoured the impressive achievements of the other two finalists. Biospectal SA made it to the top three with a smartphone application that measures blood pressure, and Healios AG thanks to smartphone technology that monitors the neurological functions of multiple sclerosis patients.
 
Federal Councillor (Bundesrat) Guy Parmelin, head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (German, WBF), empasized the importance of Switzerland’s medtech industry. “The approximately 1,400 companies and 63,000 employees generated a turnover of 18 billion Swiss francs in 2019—12 billion of which came from exports. The medtech industry benefits from supportive and reliable framework conditions in Switzerland; in particular, highly qualified specialists, concentrated hubs of research and innovation, and access to a thriving capital market.”

Parmelin also said the economic situation has deteriorated significantly due to the COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine. The decision of the European Union (EU) not to update the agreement on mutual recognition of conformity assessments (MRA) with Switzerland presents an additional challenge for the industry. The Federal Council is also addressing the shortage of skilled workers with a wide range of support programmes in the pipeline.
 
Swiss Medtech first launched the Swiss Medtech Award competition in 2018. The prize money of CHF 75,000—sponsored by the Lichtsteiner Foundation, Sonova Group, Straumann Group, and Ypsomed—recognizes outstanding achievements in the Swiss medical technology industry. The jury chaired by Prof. Mirko Meboldt, ETH Zurich evaluates candidates according to the patient benefit, improvements in healthcare, and technological pioneering spirit. Other event partners include Innosuisse (the Swiss Agency for Innovation Research) and konplan systemhaus ag. The main sponsors of the Swiss Medtech Day are be-advanced AG, Dassault Systèmes, Helbling Technik and Zühlke.