Sizeable investments for the life sciences

An interview with Mr Marc FOIDART, COO of Noshaq

What are the key figures for Noshaq? Since it was created in 1985, this public investment fund has invested €912M, €477M of which in the past five years and €110M for the year 2018 alone. This clear acceleration in financial commitments has benefited 480 businesses, 285 of which have received a capital contribution.

What funding solutions do you offer to businesses? Noshaq acts from the business start-up thanks to pre-seed funds and seed funds. The budget granted - of at least a few dozen thousand Euro - makes it possible to draw up a business plan. Life science businesses for their part are eligible to receive contributions exceeding €2.5M. Over the past 5 years, Noshaq has invested €95M in the life sciences, €33M of which was invested in 2018. It has to be said that Noshaq 's strategic plan makes the life sciences a cornerstone of regional economic development. In addition, the fund is able to call on Walloon doctors and the 600 researchers of Liège CHU and ULiège in order to serve “innovation barometers”.

In more general terms, Noshaq offers all possible funding solutions from stakeholding acquisition, junior loans and senior loans etc. to subordinated loans.

Could you give us a few examples of funded businesses? Noshaq has already supported fifty businesses in the life sciences, including Mithra Pharma (women health), quoted on Euronext, and PDC Line (immuno-oncology), Imcyse (treatment solutions against autoimmune and infectious diseases), Miracor Medical (processing of severe cardiac diseases)… Noshaq provides guidance to all projects that make sense economically and scientifically and have true potential.

What projects of regional interest do you support? Alongside initiatives such as Liège Image Cluster, the project Giga (ULiège), WSL (Wallonia Space Logistic), WBC (Wallonia Biotech Coaching) and Liege Airport Business Park, Noshaq has supported the launch of Bridge 2 Health (B2H), an action that groups together Liège CHU, ULiège, Noshaq and SPI to lead the health innovation economy and make Liège a hub on a European scale. B2H provides supervision to the whole of the portfolio of health projects in the Liège region with a view to creating an ecosystem that is favourable to development and growth of Walloon spin-offs. It in particular allows for referral on to the specialist funds to which Noshaq contributes.

Noshaq has also led to the creation of Accessia Pharma, which is developing offices, laboratories and clean rooms in Milmort (Herstal) to allow startups and SMEs active in biotechnologies and the pharmaceutical sector to bring about clinical and commercial developments. In all, over €30M has been invested in health infrastructures with Liège CHU and nearby Liège airport.

What do you think are the main challenges facing the Walloon Region in terms of funding innovation? The Walloon Region has already put in place very high performance funding mechanisms led by DGO6. I am particularly thinking of repayable advances and the FIRST Spin-Off programme which makes it possible to fund up to 55% of research costs. This gives the Walloon Region a genuine competitive advantage over bordering regions in terms of appeal. Lastly, to make the ecosystem perform even better, I note an example seen in my collaborations with the Flemish universities: they are funded by the Flemish Government to confront the results of their research with their market environment. Therefore Flemish spin-offs are being created with a higher level of maturity and are showing much more substantiated proofs of concept, thereby substantially increasing their growth potential. © Noshaq