Report from the 11. Polish – Swiss Forum for Health Dialogue

The eleventh edition of the conference began on Tuesday, June 22, 2021 at 9.00 a.m. with a welcome speech by H.E. Juerg Burri, Ambassador of Switzerland to Poland and Michał Stępień, President of the Polish-Swiss Chamber of Commerce. The meeting was held in a hybrid form. The moderators were Pablo Padrutt, Head of the Economic, Financial and Scientific Affairs of the Embassy of Switzerland in Poland and Ulrich Schwendimann, Managing Director of the Polish-Swiss Chamber of Commerce. The discussion panel was chaired by Agnieszka Sznyk, President of the INNOWO Management Board.
The organization of the Polish-Swiss Forum for Dialogue for Health was possible thanks to the support of Roche Poland and Novartis Poland.

Many distinguished guests, representatives of the world of science, business and the government sector were among the speakers of this year’s Forum. Each of them shared their unique perspective and experience. The need for cooperation, inter-sectoral and international dialogue based on mutual trust, but also the need for expertise, exchange of know-how, mentoring programs for scientists who take the first steps on the way to market their achievements, the need to change the attitude of universities in Poland to commercialization of scientific discoveries – these are just some of the extremely interesting conclusions of this year’s conference.

We invite you to view photos and recordings from the conference:

Opening Remarks (RECORDING)
– H.E. Mr Jürg Burri, Ambasador of Switzerland to Poland (10′)
– Michał Stępień, President of the Polish-Swiss Chamber of Commerce (10′)

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Keynote Speeches: What are the success factors for innovation in pharma and life sciences in Poland and Switzerland, respectively?
– Piotr Arak, Director of the Polish Economic Institute (15′) (RECORDING)
– Neil Goldsmith, Director Strategy, BaseLaunch (15′) (RECORDING)
– Dr Piotr Dardziński, President of Łukasiewicz Research Network (15′) (RECORDING)

Input I: How does Switzerland manage to connect scientists and entrepreneurs to launch and grow biotech companies? (RECORDING)
– Jordi Montserrat, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Venturelab (15′)

Input II: Building Biotechs – Corporate Venture Capital & Founder/Management Perspectives (RECORDING)
– Bart Dzikowski, PhD, Managing Director, Head of Transactions & Legal of Novartis Venture Fund; board member at UZH Life Sciences Fund, Oculis S.A. and Enterprise Therapeutics
– Dr Michał Walczak, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Captor Therapeutics

– Input III: Personal observations about Poland’s potential from a Swiss expert’s perspective (RECORDING)
– Dr Liliane Brunner Halbach, Global Pharma and Life Sciences Expert

Panel discussion: How to create an environment conducive to successful R&D in pharma and life sciences (RECORDING)
– Irma Veberič, General Manager Roche Poland
– dr Radosław Sierpiński, Head of Poland’s Medical Research Agency
– Jan Krzewiński, President of Polpharma Biologics Gdańsk
– prof. Jacek Jemielity, bio-organic chemistry, University of Warsaw
– dr hab. Michał Wszola, CEO of Polbionica Ltd., surgeon transplantologist
– dr inż. Agnieszka Sznyk, Innowo (moderator)