ABN AMRO has partnered the Dutch Life Sciences Conference (DLSC) for some years now. Mirna Geense Manager of the Healthcare team, sees the DLSC as an important event for the bank.
Leiden Bio Science Park
“We have a lot of clients on the Leiden Bio Science Park – mainly businesses active in medical development and technology. So Leiden definitely is of a focal point for us. For the healthcare team the DLSC is a perfect opportunity for us to extend our network within the life sciences sector. Using Leiden as a starting point, our ultimate aim is to establish a strong presence in all geographical centres of excellence in the renewal of Healthcare.”
Leading the way
The Dutch have been achieving great success in this sector. The Netherlands is now recognized as a world leader, especially in the field of medical technology. ABN AMRO anticipates a bright future, but realises a lot of work is still to be done.
“The challenge now is to excel in the rapidly changing market . Over the next ten or twenty years, there will be life changing innovations. These are not only fun, but also necessary to keep costs under control. There’s enormous demand for creative solutions and insight.
Dare to delegate!
Few sectors are more dynamic than life sciences. Promising concepts abound and there is tremendous enthusiasm amongst young entrepreneurs. However, a good idea is no guarantee of commercial success.
“You may have come up with something really great, but if there aren’t people out there who want to buy it, you won’t get far. Thorough market analysis is vital, and you always need the right partners. Your bank can help you with those issues. It’s a mistake to think that you’ve to do everything yourself. Entrepreneurs shouldn’t be wary of delegating responsibility for the things that are outside their field of expertise. We often come across people who are brilliant at developing medical solutions, but lack the financial expertise needed to bring them successfully to market. That’s why we advise a lot of clients to appoint a finance manager. Entrepreneurs can be hesitant about taking such a step, when in fact it would free them up to concentrate on what they excel at: medical innovation.”
Algorithms to speed up research
ABN AMRO also realises that changes can be brought upon by parties outside the own market. To encourage the changes in the bank ABN AMRO organises hackathon to use the knowledge of data experts on developing data algorithms to improve the services of the bank. Last June during the Hackathon ABN AMRO also organised 2 social challenges, of which one in Healthcare. The aim was to develop an algorithm to predict the success of an immunotherapy based on data.
Despite the abundance of data, DNA-data, RNA- data, protein-data, and clinical data of 1000 patients it was difficult to detect statistically valid relations. However 7 teams, assisted by 4 professors, 3 students and doctors from the Erasmus MC and the UMC Groningen were able to speed up the research with 3 years. This way of thinking can also help the life science sector. ABN AMRO trusts that by using more statistics in research, so-called “valleys of death” can be avoided, or at least be decreased.
Contact the Healthcare team at:
Mirna Geense (manager)
email: mirna.geense@nl.abnamro.com
Anja van Balen
email: anja.van.balen@nl.abnamro.com
Margreet Dijkxhoorn
email: margreet.dijkxhoorn@nl.abnamro.com
Erik Bos
email: erik.bos@nl.abnamro.com
Frederik uit den Bogaard
email: frederik.uit.den.bogaard@nl.abnamro.com