Flavii Therapeutics and Danae Urogenomics have been selected as the winning projects in the first edition of the Élan Vital Programme, organised by the HiTT Foundation. The programme is designed to accelerate early-stage business projects in the fields of health and life sciences. The winning companies will each receive an investment valued at 20,000 euros.
Flavii Therapeutics is a spin-off from the University of Barcelona focused on the development of epigenetic therapies for central nervous system disorders; it already has five drug projects at various stages of pre-clinical trials. For its part, Danae Urogenomics is a Madrid-based company that has developed a platform for the diagnosis and monitoring of bladder cancer treatment, enabling personalised therapeutic decisions using a precise and non-invasive method.
The jury, comprising Lluís Ruiz (AdBio, venture partner), Laura Pallisé (Amgen), Laia Pascual (Ship2B Venture), Emma Gasol (Almirall) and Oriol Solà-Morales, president of the HiTT Foundation, based its verdict on the degree of innovation and the potential impact of the projects. The entries from Flavii and Danae took first place following the assessment of a group of five finalists, which also included the companies Oniria Therapeutics, Heecap and OncoPanCure.
A total of 54 projects competed in the first edition of the Élan Vital Programme, which aims to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. The programme organisers and the judging panel highlighted the high quality of the proposals submitted, which made selecting the finalists and winners a challenging task.