Helsinn Investment Fund: 10 finalists for Lyfebulb-Helsinn innovation summit & awards in oncology

Lyfebulb, a patient empowerment platform that connects patients, industry and investors to support user-driven innovation toward solutions in chronic disease, and Helsinn, a Swiss pharmaceutical group focused on building quality cancer care, today announce the names of the ten Patient Entrepreneurs chosen as finalists for the Lyfebulb-Helsinn Innovation Summit & Awards in Oncology.

The following inspirational finalists will compete at the Lyfebulb-Helsinn Innovation Summit, on March 18 and 19, 2019, for two $25,000 grants:

• Karl Blohm, PhD of SafeHeal SAS
• Matt De Silva of Notable Labs
• Carlos Garcia of Welwaze Medical Inc.
• Philippe Halfon MD, PhD, PharmD of Genoscience Pharma
• David Hysong of Shepherd Therapeutics
• Pierluigi Paracchi of Genenta Science
• Florence Séjourné of Da Volterra
• Mihir Shah of UE LifeSciences Inc.
• Ira Spector, PhD of SFA Therapeutics Inc.
• Maria Zannes of bioAffinity Technologies

The Awards will recognize outstanding Patient Entrepreneurs building groundbreaking companies to advance the prevention, diagnosis, management or care of cancer patients. The finalists represent companies that have been founded by cancer patients, cancer survivors or those with loved ones affected by cancer. A “pitch session” will be held at the summit, where a jury of experts will select the ultimate winners.

“At Lyfebulb, we believe individuals living with a chronic disease have not only unique insights, but also solutions to address needs they identify in their daily lives. We thank and salute each and every Patient Entrepreneur who applied to our Challenge, and we look forward to the highly collaborative two days we will spend with our teams, jury and finalists, who each bring their unique strategy to reducing the burden of living with cancer,” said Dr. Karin Hehenberger, CEO and Founder of Lyfebulb.

Riccardo Braglia, Helsinn Group Vice Chairman and CEO, added, “So many of us are affected by cancer, and bringing new and advanced solutions to the marketplace is at the heart of what the Helsinn Group does. Helsinn and the Helsinn Investment Fund are  committed to positively impacting the patient community by mentoring, partnering, investing in or connecting these innovators as they pursue their entrepreneurial journey and we are delighted to be working with Lyfebulb on this summit and awards for a second year.”