Treefrog Therapeutics: A true French gem in the cell therapy industry, the Bordeaux-based startup created in 2018 by Maxime Feyeux, biologist, President, Kevin Alessandri, physician and CEO, and Jean-Luc Treillou, pharmaceutical doctor and Chairman of the Board, has developed a breakthrough technology for the mass production of cell therapies. In 2018, the firm raised €7.1 million and opened a one-of-a-kind industrial production site in which it invested €2 million. Over 1,200 square meters built in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region, the company’s site ambition is to mass produce stem cells and reduce the cost of stem cell production, thereby making these innovative and costly therapeutic solutions available to a larger population.

Wandercraft is a French deep tech company developing exoskeletal robots that allow paraplegic patients to walk again. With its Atalante exoskeleton, being mainly used in rehabilitation centers, Wandercraft aims to democratize the exoskeleton to the general public. The company was founded in 2012 by Matthieu Masselin, Nicolas Simon and Alexandre Boulanger. In 2017, clinical trials were conducted with the first prototypes of the exoskeleton, demonstrating that patients could walk hands free, without crutches. This prototype evolved into Atalante, the first CE marked, commercially available exoskeleton in 2019. Atalante is now used in a growing number of European rehabilitation hospitals, helping stroke and extra-medullary leukemia patients learn to walk again.

In 2019, the firm announced that it was working towards launching its products in the United States in 2021 and participating in the Cybathlon, the Robotics Olympics, in November 2020. Submission to the FDA is scheduled for 2021.

Created in 2018 in Saint-Cannat, near Aix-en-Provence by Claude Cohen-Bacrie, e-Scopics has developed a new generation of ultrasound scanners in the age of dematerialization and the cloud. This real-time, non-invasive imaging method is no longer confined to the world of radiology, cardiologists and obstetricians. It is becoming mobile and accessible to all healthcare professionals, enabling them to move from a diagnostic problem to one that is more upstream of screening, or downstream, to therapy and its follow-up. The startup has already been awarded several prizes including the Ilab 2018 competition, the Innov’inMed Accelerate Award, accompanied by the French Tech grant, the Impulse incubator and the Provencal seed device from Pays d’Aix Développement. The pharmaceutical company Gilead has already invested €1.5 million in the seeding of e-Scopics. As early as 2021, the “as a service” ultrasound could be coming out of radiology offices and into clinicians’ offices.

The Galien Foundation fosters, recognizes and rewards excellence in scientific innovation that improves the state of human health.

Its mission is to serve as a vehicle for the open exchange of ideas that drive science and new innovations. Its vision is to catalyze the development of the next generation of innovative treatment and technologies that will improve health and save lives. Its scope is global and its commitment to progress in medicine is both measurable and concrete. Its members express this through the establishment of productive relationships to build lasting bridges between the commercial research enterprise and local communities engaged in public policy, science, finance, academic research and the media.

The Foundation oversees and directs activities in the United States for the Prix Galien, an international award that recognizes outstanding achievements in improving the global human condition through the development of innovative therapies. The Prix Galien was created in France in 1970 in honor of Claude Galien, the father of medical science and modern pharmacology. Worldwide, the Prix Galien is regarded as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in biopharmaceutical and medical technology research.