Luxembourg’s short working visit to the US brought some certainty for one of Luxembourg’s most successful tech firms while raising hopes for more trans-Atlantic cooperation.
The four-day visit began in Boston with a strong focus on health tech information gathering, kicking off with a crash course in Mass General Brigham (MGB), an integrated academic health care system.
The delegation, which included Luxembourg economy minister Franz Fayot and health minister Paulette Lenert, toured the MGB surgical amphitheatre, where the first surgery using ether as an anaesthetic was performed in 1846. And they received insights into Mass General Brigham Ventures, a VC fund created to invest in bringing innovations from MGB’s clinical research to market.
Next was a visit to the research campus of FM Global, an insurer specialised in risk prevention in the industrial sector. Here Franz Fayot signed a joint declaration of intent outlining potential R&D avenues of cooperation between FM Global and Luxembourg.
On day 2, Fayot signed on the dotted line again, this time for a memorandum of understanding with Azenta. The leading global provider of biomedical science solutions acquired Luxembourg medtech firm B Medical Systems in October 2022.
The agreement, which was signed at Azenta’s Burlington Massachusetts facility, assured the sustainable development of B Medical Systems’ healthcare technology activities in Luxembourg. B Medical Systems was founded in 1979 in Luxembourg and is a global leader in the vaccine cold chain. The pandemic saw an explosion in demand for its solutions, prompting it to build a new 4,500 m2 production hall for the latest generation of equipment, a project that was partly financed with by the ministry.
Minister Fayot said: “The fact that a world-renowned company like Azenta has acquired B Medical Systems, one of our industrial flagships, demonstrates the dynamism of Luxembourg’s health technology sector, which is one of the pillars of Luxembourg’s economic diversification strategy. Through this MOU, our goal is to continue the good collaboration that already prevailed with B Medical Systems, especially in its future research, development and innovation projects, as well as to identify possible synergies.”
The delegation also met with start-up Avant-garde Health, and heard about its solutions that enable health system actors to put the principles of value-based healthcare into practice. They book-ended the day with a visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lab (MIT Lab), as well as the Mass eHealth Institute.
Day 3 took the delegation to New York City where the Luxembourg Private Equity Association (LPEA) hosted a conference to promote Luxembourg as a leading financial center for investment funds and to highlight the numerous opportunities for companies to raise funds in Luxembourg. The second highlight was the tenth Luxembourg-American Business Award ceremony.
Organised by the Luxembourg-American Chamber of Commerce and the Luxembourg Trade & Investment Office in New York, it awarded the DuPont group. This global tech firm has been present in Luxembourg since 1962 and recently invested in its site in Contern in order to extend its production line for Tyvek, a material with insulating properties used in particular in protective clothing for health care workers.
On the final day of the working visit, delegates attended the official launch of the Benelux Catalyst start-up acceleration program, which this year features Gamma AR representing Luxembourg, plus two startups from Belgium and three from the Netherlands. Over two weeks, the founders will attend an intense programme involving workshops, courses and one-to-one sessions. Fayot and Prince Guillaume attend the Luxembourg Space Finance event where representatives from Luxembourg-based Orbital Ventures, Redwire, RRE Ventures and Kleos Space discussed investment gaps and challenges faced by companies and investors. The event also aimed to strengthen the network and cooperation in this sector between Luxembourg and the broader European Union on the one hand, and the United States on the other.
