SATT Nord and Lille University Hospital signed a partnership agreement this year to strengthen the economic and social impact of research results by accelerating the transfer of innovation for the benefit of patients. One of the specific objectives is to promote job creation, particularly in the Hauts-de-France region. This is a symbolic step toward accelerating access to innovation for patients.
The Lille University Hospital, a major player in research and innovation, aims to anticipate the therapeutic strategies of tomorrow, support economic and societal changes in healthcare, and implement innovations for better quality care.
With 86 patents to its credit and more than 280 industrial partnerships, the Lille University Hospital's Research and Innovation Department has a dynamic partnership policy aimed at transferring the results of research conducted by its researchers and partners as quickly as possible.
For its part, SATT Nord is involved in the entire chain of valorization and transfer of technologies developed by researchers at higher education institutions and research organizations that are shareholders or partners of SATT Nord. Its core business is the technological development of inventions resulting from public research by providing financial resources and expertise in order to transfer them to the industrial sphere. In the field of health, SATT Nord has also entered into a partnership with the Eurasanté incubator, which brings together 200 companies on the Lille university hospital campus. This enables it to promote projects by creating innovative companies that will market new products (medicines, medical devices, etc.) or services.
The development of this partnership between Lille University Hospital and SATT Nord is in line with the institution's partnership policy in the field of research. The clinicians and researchers at our University Hospital work closely with our academic partners on a daily basis: the University of Lille, INSERM, CNRS, etc. This partnership between the University Hospital and SATT Nord strengthens the pooling and consistency of these institutions' research and innovation activities. It should therefore enable projects to mature more fully and lead to a significant increase in the number of patents.
Already operational on the hospital site, SATT Nord's maturation activities at Lille University Hospital are reflected in:
- Raising awareness among hospital staff about intellectual property issues and the various ways of exploiting research results
- Identifying and developing projects with potential for value creation
- The possibility of co-developing projects
- Support for the transfer of results
"Academic research is currently subject to very strict regulations. One of the advantages of this partnership with SATT Nord is that it provides additional support to simplify and accelerate the maturation of projects in legal, economic, and technological terms. The challenge is to enable patients and users to access healthcare innovations more quickly. Through this collaboration, we are attempting to respond to these challenges in the most efficient way possible. "
Frédéric BOIRON, Director General of Lille University Hospital
"The new terms of cooperation between SATT Nord and Lille University Hospital are designed to broaden and increase the range of projects likely to lead to innovations in the field of healthcare. Lille University Hospital's recognized excellence is highly conducive to the emergence of high-potential inventions. Thanks to the resources dedicated by SATT Nord in terms of funding and support during the early stages of research, and to fruitful collaboration throughout the innovation process, which can extend to clinical studies at Lille University Hospital, together we will be able to more effectively achieve our objectives in the service of patients."
Fabrice LEFEBVRE, President of SATT Nord
BOUCLE: a Lille University Hospital project supported by SATT Nord in 2021
Among the many Lille University Hospital research projects supported by SATT Nord, BOUCLE ANI is a technological innovation project focused on improving overall general anesthesia care. Initiated by the Lille Clinical Investigation and Technological Innovation Center and co-developed by SATT NORD and MDoloris Medical Systems, the goal is to create an infusion pump that automates the administration of analgesics during surgery under general anesthesia. This technological innovation project complements another innovation from Lille University Hospital, already marketed by MDoloris Medical Systems: a monitor that assesses the patient's pain during surgery in order to calculate the correct level of pain medication to administer.
"This strengthening of our partnership with SATT Nord is a real catalyst for the development of our project. The goal is to transfer our invention to the industrial prototype stage within two years so that it can be marketed as soon as possible through the Lille-based company MDoloris Medical Systems. SATT Nord allows us to remain truly responsive as our project evolves. To this end, it is financing an engineering position for a period of two years."
Régis LOGIER, Head of the Clinical Investigation Center – Technological Innovation in Lille