Start.Smart.Global
What is it about?
European life science SMEs offer innovative and globally competitive technologies, products and services. For most of them, it is a big challenge to set up their business on their own in unknown, often time-consuming and complex markets outside Europe, and to identify the right business partners and contacts.
Funded by EIT Health within the framework of its Accelerator GoGlobal programme, BioM (Munich Region) and Medicen (Paris Region) developed the training project “Start.Smart.Global” dedicated to European start-ups and SMEs looking to better understand market opportunities in Japan or South Korea for a short/mid-term business plan in those countries.
Why should you participate? What you should expect?
Together with local strategic partners, we develop an individual market entry strategy for Japan and Korea, adjusted to your business sector and the requirements of your company. This includes an intensive on-site training in July 2019 for Korea (in Paris) or in September 2019 for Japan (in Munich) and various e-learning measures throughout the year. Focus is a 2-day culture workshop, followed by two days of peer-learning with companies already successfully operating in Japan or Korea in the relevant sectors.
During a one-week immersion roadshow in October/November 2019, you have the opportunity to validate and implement the strategy in your selected target region (Japan or Korea) and initiate first leads.
In this program, you receive the answers to your questions about how to best enter the Japanese/Korean market – from “peers”, i.e. companies, who already successfully operate in your sector in the target market, and from experts with country-specific know-how and networks. You will also be trained intensively by a culture trainer to prepare your roadshow in Japan or Korea.
The training is sector-specific and targets the challenging Japanese or Korean business environment: regulatory and reimbursement environments for health products/services, contacts to agents and distributors with access to the appropriate customer networks, access to funding and financing opportunities, R&D partners, language & cultural complexities, different business conventions, understanding of market needs and competition.
Who can apply?
The target participants in the GoGlobal programmes are mature European start-ups and SMEs – companies, who already offer a product or platform technology, are ready to enter an international R&D project, started to sell on other markets, or at least are in the last stage of their Certification process. You should also have the ambition to expand on the Japanese or Korean market within a year, and allocate time for the on-site training and roadshow. Your business in the target country could be to sell products, partner your technology, do R&D, or offer your technical services. Your company should also fit to EIT Health thematic scope: “Healthy living, Active Ageing, Improved Health care.” The applying company should locate in the area covered by the EIT Health CLCs.
Financial support
Each participating SME will receive a maximum of 2,500 EUR towards travel costs to participate in the Paris/Munich on-site training and the roadshow to Japan/Korea. All e-learning, training and coaching units are provided free of charge.
Submission of Application
Applications are to be submitted in an executive summary format according to the criteria in the EIT Health online platform Optimy, from January 1st to March 31st, 2019, 18:00 (CET).
Medicen, BioM, EIT HEALTH and local partners will evaluate the applications and select up to 12 companies. The selected companies will be contacted by end of April for official approval, first contacts and identify your main needs.
For further information, please contact Dr. Stephanie Wehnelt, wehnelt@bio-m.org or Olivier Fontaine, ofontaine@medicen.org.
About EIT Health
EIT Health is an independent Community, constituted in 2008 by the European Institute for Innovation & Technology (EIT), which aims to boost innovation and speed up entrepreneurship in Europe.
EIT Health´s Accelerator is a business-development programme, and with its GoGlobal projects, participating companies can obtain better knowledge on global key ecosystems, special characteristics of the market, contacts and networking-opportunities and tailor-made training, which ease and accelerate the market entry into the target country. Different GoGlobal projects target different non-European markets (see https://www.eithealth.eu/goglobal):
- Start.Smart.Global: Helps European life science SMEs optimise their market entries into the lucrative but challenging business environments of Japan and South Korea.
- GoGlobal Canada: Provides 13 top European SMEs with a unique gateway to three recognised Canadian innovation hubs.
- GoGlobal Medtech/Digital Health: Medtech and digital health companies seeking their first export market partake in ten days of investigating Europe, the US and China. .
- MedTech Exchange Accelerator: Gives medtech and digital health start-ups first-hand insights about the country specifics of the Chinese healthcare market.
Background
Japan has the world’s 2nd largest healthcare market and ranks amongst Europe’s top 5 pharmaceutical trading partners. Given Europe’s leading position in life sciences and Japan’s interest in novel technologies, services and products, this sector holds significant opportunities for innovative European SMEs. However, for European health service and product companies to introduce complex and new cutting-edge technologies and to established large companies and the conservative South Korea is nurturing a culture of innovation and attractive regulatory environment to place itself in the top ranking of global health care hubs. Pharmaceutical industry in the country is transforming from generic drug manufacturing to new drug development, mainly centered on biosimilars and gene therapy. In the field of medical devices, regulatory improvements support fast-track approval and re-imbursement increases. Japanese health market can be time consuming, tedious and consultation-intensive.
South Korea is nurturing a culture of innovation and attractive regulatory environment to place itself in the top ranking of global health care hubs. Pharmaceutical industry in the country is transforming from generic drug manufacturing to new drug development, mainly centered on biosimilars and gene therapy. In the field of medical devices, regulatory improvements support fast-track approval and re-imbursement increases.
Start.Smart.Global will help you accelerating your market entry in Japan or South Korea.
