The University of Zurich has a long tradition of cutting-edge research in life sciences. Nobel laureate Rolf Zinkernagel and Charles Weissmann, co-founder of Biogen, are testament to this.
In the last 15 years, UZH has had over 100 spin-offs — many of them in the field of life sciences. The UZH Life Sciences Fund continues this success story.
The UZH Foundation and the Novartis Venture Fund are contributing to the fund in equal amounts as partners with equal rights. Both parties put up CHF 3 million each to kick off the fund. CUTISS and Anaveon were the first spin-offs to benefit from investments from the UZH Life Sciences Fund. Seed funding was also provided to ImmunOs Therapeutics, Occlufit and EraCal Therapeutics. Some of these spin-offs have since developed into successful independent companies.
The UZH Life Sciences Fund promotes spin-offs in the field of life sciences and biotechnology in Switzerland. These companies often struggle to acquire funding, especially in their early stages, since developing marketable applications takes a lot of time and clinical research is expensive.
