Lygature: pioneering medicine together
Utrecht, June 9, 2015 - Today, CTMM and TI Pharma, the two largest public-private top institutes in the Dutch top sector Life Sciences & Health, presented their plans and ambition for their joint future during the CTMM + TI Pharma Launch Meeting at the Muntgebouw in Utrecht. CTMM (Center for Translational Molecular Medicine) and TI Pharma (Top Institute Pharma) also announced that the new merged organization will from now on be known as Lygature. Lygature will focus on partnerships for medical innovation.
A case for collaboration
Society expects ever more from medical solutions for patients, while the realization of effective healthcare continues to become more complex. People are growing older and the development costs of new medicines and advanced medical technology continue to rise. This demands effective collaboration among all the stakeholders: government, insurers, academic institutions, pharmaceutical and medical technology businesses, regulatory authorities and patient organizations.
This is exactly where Lygature comes in: managing collaborative public-private partnerships. By working together, medical innovations become available more quickly for the health and welfare of our society. Lygature will focus on topics that are too complex for one single party to achieve on its own.
'Significant gain for innovation in Dutch medical science'
With Lygature, the Dutch sector is bundling its strengths in the area of diagnostics, imaging and pharmacotherapy. By doing so, the new organization will become an even more important player in the area of public-private research collaborations, at both national and European level.
The merger between CTMM and TI Pharma therefore links up seamlessly with the ambition of top sector Life Sciences & Health (LSH) to introduce focus to the Dutch public-private research agenda. Jan Raaijmakers (figurehead of the top sector LSH): 'One of the ambitions of the top sector Life Sciences & Health is to sustain the expertise that has been built up in the top institutes to the sector's benefit in the future. This ambition is being realized through the bundling of the strengths of CTMM and TI Pharma in the new organization Lygature. The merger between these two institutes therefore represents a significant gain for innovation in Dutch medical science.'
Social responsibility
Lygature constructs and supervises partnerships, seeks funding and directs the partnerships using its scientific and management capacities. In the past years, a portfolio of ten large public-private partnerships has been built up this way. Examples are projects in the field of data infrastructure such as TraIT, and sharing of important technological resources as in the flagship project the European Lead Factory.
Jorg Janssen (Managing Director Lygature): 'Through our projects as a merged organization, we contribute substantially to a shared scientific infrastructure and a shared social responsibility, to pioneer medical solutions for patients worldwide.'