LISAvienna: Highly successful Boehringer Ingelheim “Office Hours” in Vienna

On March 7, 2023, Boehringer Ingelheim’s experts were available for the “Office Hours” hosted at the IMP in Vienna. Five life-science teams from across Austria were selected to join one-on-one roundtable discussions at the Vienna BioCenter.

Since recent years, big pharmaceutical and medical device companies strategically share their knowledge with the next generation of bioentrepreneurs.

At Boehringer Ingelheim RCV, Maria Antonietta Impagnatiello, Business Development & Licensing, and Guido Boehmelt, Research Beyond Borders, oversee the “Office Hours” which are part of Boehringer Ingelheim´s Grass Roots initiative. They comment: “We highly appreciate collaborating with LISAvienna on this pioneering mentoring event. Together with our colleagues from around the globe we lift the lid on how a big pharma company works and provide access to expertise, an industry perspective and feedback to emerging life-science businesses. This time, we could unfortunately not accommodate all applications for the day, but we are confident that the offer to discuss critical factors a pharma partner is aware of with young entrepreneurs will also be available in the future.”

Johannes Sarx and Philipp Hainzl, Managing Directors at LISAvienna, added: “We are happy to contribute to strengthening the ties between global players and young entrepreneurs and congratulate Boehringer Ingelheim on their open innovation activities. It is always a privilege to host the Boehringer Ingelheim Office Hours in Vienna.”

Strong praise from participants:

Julia Kern, Director Strategic Partnerships at Somareality, notes: “At Somareality, we develop digital biomarkers based on eye-tracking which we deploy across various use cases in healthcare. As such, discussing our vision and go-to-market plans with the expert team at Boehringer Ingelheim has been a great pleasure. Making sure you have product-market fit as a startup in an ever-changing and fast-paced environment is key – therefore, getting a glimpse into Boehringer Ingelheim’s strategy was super valuable.”

Christian W. Gruber, Associate Professor at the Center for Physiology and Pharmacology, Medical University of Vienna, on his experiences with the Boehringer Ingelheim Office Hours: “We are developing macrocyclic peptide ligands of the kappa-opioid receptor for pain relief, as an alternative to common opioid drugs that come with the drawback of addiction and obstipation. Experts from Boehringer Ingelheim were excited by the approach and available proof-of-concept data, but also pointed out additional directions that need clarification for successful translation and partnering. Boehringer Ingelheim Office Hours is a fantastic mentoring opportunity for drug discovery and development projects. Boehringer Ingelheim’s experts provide a fair, balanced, and non-biased feedback.”

myReha CEO and founder Moritz Schöllauf concludes: “It was great meeting with the team at Boehringer Ingelheim to discuss myReha’s capabilities for diagnosing and treating neurological patients with our AI-based platform. We had a productive conversation about the potential for collaboration between myReha and Boehringer Ingelheim to improve patient outcomes and advance the field of neurology. I'm excited about the possibilities for partnership and look forward to future discussions.”

Eduard Stefan, CEO KinCon biolabs, on his experiences with the Boehringer Ingelheim Office Hours: “KinCon biolabs is developing a platform of unique biosensors for enzyme activities to accelerate drug discovery. Discussing our strategies with Boehringer Ingelheim experts has been helpful in identifying what approaches are needed in drug development. Their feedback on hard-to-target proteins will help us explore new ways to analyze and manipulate tumor suppressor and oncoprotein functions directly in the cellular environment.”

Additional information on the Boehringer Ingelheim “Office Hours” initiative and the company’s Grass Roots events calendar are available here: https://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/grass-roots-partnering/office-hours/about-office-hours

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