Networking actors in the medical device sector

8.6% of GDP in Europe is spent on health, of which 6.4% is for medical technology. Although this expenditure delivers an exceptional return on investment, there is a need for continual innovation. Increasing patient treatment and operating costs mean that the commercial prospects for even quite significant breakthroughs in treatments might be poor if the willingness/ability to pay among society and patients does not exist.
“Part of the problem for the medical technology industry” Maurice Wagner, Director General of Eucomed, said “is not the capability of innovation itself, but the difficulty in bringing the fruits of that innovation to the patient and the economy”.

Investors need to be confident a timely return on their investments in R&D. InJection focuses on how SMEs active in the healthcare sector can access funding from professional investors and through this funding achieve sustainable growth.

The goal of the InJection project was to provide SMEs and investors with sector specific networking opportunities.

This involved 3 objectives:

• Enabling the creation of new and cross-border contacts both for leading industrial actors and stakeholders in the sector, and potential investors.
• Developing the medical devices innovation area by fostering collaboration between the many different actors in the sector and extract lessons and best practice.
• Building on the experience and tools and services developed under the PAXIS and Gate2Growth initiatives, and to adapt them to the medical devices sector.

The project was funded by the European Commission from the 6th Framework Programme.