Innovation Interview: the future of gynecology with Aspivix

Aspivix has a remarkable mission: to shape the future of women’s healthcare thanks to their modern and innovative gyneocological medical devices.

The developments of this Swiss start-up have not passed unnoticed by the sector and by organisations such as the European Commission as they have not hesitated to show interest and support to Aspivix’s projects to continue to grow and progress.

Today we are accompanied by Mathieu Horras (CEO, Founder & Board Member), taking a look back at the history and successes of Aspivix. Take a seat and get a closer look at the future of gynaecology!

Aspivix’s team. ©Zuzanna Adamczewska-Bolle 

Aspivix is re-imagining the world of gynecology by creating next-generation medical devices. Why did you decide to focus on this important field?

It all started with a simple observation. Women’s healthcare, particularly the gynecology field, was and is still underserved. Innovation has been scarce for the past century, resulting in a lack of proper treatments and several antiquated procedures. This is precisely what Dr Med. David Finci, one of 3 Aspivix’s co-founders, was experiencing in his daily practice as a gynecologist. 

“The best way to predict the future is to create it”. This inspiring sentence was at the very heart of the co-founders’ motivation. Launching Aspivix was driven by our willingness to fill a gap in gynecology practice and change the game for millions of women bearing the pain of obsolete practices every year. This is how our vision to shape the future of women’s care through innovation was born.

In Aspivix, you have developed a unique project: replacing the tenaculum used in gynecological procedures with a suction-based cervical device. Could you tell us more about this and what will it mean for the future of women’s medicine?

Aspivix, a developer of medical technologies, is on a mission to advance gynecological care. With Carevix™, our first device, Aspivix will free millions of women from unnecessary pain and bleeding during widespread gynecology procedures performed to access the uterus. 

Carevix™ is an innovative, soft-suction medical device designed as a modern and gentler alternative to a cervical tenaculum to stabilise the cervix in all transcervical procedures such as an Intrauterine Device (IUD) insertion. By leveraging suction technology to stabilise the cervix gently, Carevix delivers cervical engagement. A semi-circular anatomical pad is applied onto the delicate tissue during gynecological procedures, reducing trauma associated with pain and bleeding. 

Carevix™ opens a new era for women’s contraception, with the clear goal of making IUD placement and transcervical procedures a more comfortable experience for women worldwide.

Carevix™ ©Zuzanna Adamczewska-Bolle

Recently, your company has participated in the 2022 Swiss Annual Gynecology Congress in St. Gallen (SGGG). How has been this experience and the attention Aspivix received from visitors and participants?

The 2022 Swiss Annual Gynecology Congress in St. Gallen (SGGG) was a significant milestone for ASPIVIX. The congress was indeed the opportunity to demonstrate for the very first time the instrument Carevix™ and display the preliminary results of the Randomized Controlled Trial (ADVANCE Women), recently completed in two Swiss University Hospitals. With the first in the world clinical proven atraumatic cervix stabiliser in the world, the Carevix™ device got a lot of attention from visiting physicians.

Reflecting on this experience, two words summarise best the impression of visitors and participants.

•  Enthusiasm: With pain reduction ranging from 30% to 78% and a bleeding decrease of 87%, we could not expect anything different.  Therefore, the curiosity for the product was evidenced by many testimonies, generating multiple opportunities for collaborations with centres of excellence shortly.
•  Impatience: Future customers and the entire Aspivix team cannot wait to receive the market authorisation and deliver those enthusiastic customers.

   

Among your partners, we find relevant game players in the R&D world, such as Innosuise, TechTour or VentureLab. How important is it to count on organisms like these in developing and growing projects like yours? 

The action led by many partners such as Innosuisse, VentureLab, the Foundation pour l’Innovation Technologique (FIT), the Service de la promotion de l’économie et l’innovation (SPEI) or the EIC program are paramount in the development of the start-up ecosystem. The impulse given by those precious partners are of 3 folds:

1. On an innovation side, it enables young start-ups to identify the right academies and industrial partners having complementary expertise
2. On the financing side, it provides focused funding that helps start-ups pass through the financing death valley, a critical period for start-ups.
3. On the fundraising side, it gives credibility and exposure to access investors. 

No matter how relevant some innovations are, many of them would never take off and remain grounded at their very early stage without the support of those partners. This is especially true in Women’s healthcare, where the financing sources remain rare, and the investors, mostly males, still face difficulty relating to the needs and innovations in this domain.

Aspivix is based in Switzerland, one of the most relevant global leaders in the innovation field. Could you please tell us the key factors that make your country an excellent place to create and develop disruptive technologies and projects?

Beyond the usual postcard, Switzerland has also, for many years, understood the importance of innovation and built a suitable environment and policies fostering the emergence of disruptive technologies. This undebated commitment to innovations, allowing innovating start-ups to flourish, is evidenced in several initiatives and by numerous Swiss partners to innovation. 

The high quality of the education and the academies has created the foundations for always more innovations. ETH and EPFL rank every year among the world’s top tier technological universities. The proximity to those institutions and the access to their students and young workers with masters and PhDs, are invaluable for innovative companies.

The numerous partners, such as SPEI, FIT, Innosuisse, VentureLab, VentureKick, Swissnex are key actors of the Swiss innovation scene, acting as a compass for start-ups to navigate into this ecosystem, connecting start-ups with funds, academies, industrials partners as well as business opportunities.

The Swiss commitment to innovations has been recently illustrated after the mutual recognition agreement between the EU and Switzerland was not reconducted, preventing Swiss companies from accessing the EIC programme. Indeed, Innosuisse and the SEFRI substituted immediately the EIC program to secure Swiss companies a robust innovation program and continuity, a central piece for companies.

With such an active and thrilling environment, it is not surprising to see Switzerland as one of the strongest places to create and develop disruptive technologies.

In 2019, your project received support from the European Commission through EIC Accelerator’s predecessor (SME Instrument) to help you develop it further. How did it mean to achieve this funding goal, and what did it suppose for your initiative’s growth?

The EIC Accelerator’s predecessor, the Horizon 2020 SME-Instrument phase 2 project, has been a booster for ASPIVIX, which not only gave the financial means to advance women’s healthcare, a traditionally underserved and underfinanced sector, but also provided the credibility needed to engage with many hospitals, large manufacturers, and partners or to recruit high calibre associates. Receiving support from such a selective programme acted as a door opener for some investors.

Carevix™ ©Zuzanna Adamczewska-Bolle

At Evolution, we feel very fortunate to have clients like Aspivix, who aim to progress in healthcare with modern and innovative projects to improve patients’ lives. How would you evaluate our cooperation regarding your funding strategy and project management services?

Prior to entering the EIC Accelerator’s predecessor, the SME-Instrument project, start-ups must find out which non-dilutive funding program could fit their development stage and needs if any.

At Evolution, we found the expertise and guidance in this domain to identify and target the right programme for us. Of course, in such a selective programme, where only 3-4% of the projects are funded, benefiting from an experienced partner has been revealed to be precious.

The value of Evolution does not stop here. “As one, you go faster; as a team, you go further”. After winning the SME-Instrument project, a long-term Project Management phase starts, lasting 27 months, which requires continuous guidance to cope with its intrinsic complexity and rules. 

Having Evolution on board was key to guiding us through the different hurdles and acting as gatekeepers with the multiple reporting duties. When running such a project, the risk of overlooking some reporting duties is fairly high for founders and the managing team of a start-up. Getting Evolution alongside was fundamental to ensure peace of mind and keep the start-up team focused on project development.

To finish this interview, we would like to look at the future: what are Aspivix’s next steps in the women’s healthcare sector?

Through the Horizon 2020 SME-Instrument phase 2 project, Aspivix has successfully achieved significant milestones by completing:

•       the smart and easy-to-use design of Carevix™, which was recognised with the IF design award 2022,
•       the First-in-Woman clinical trial of Carevix™, 

·     and the industrialisation of Carevix™ with a ready-to-scale-up production site.

Carevix™  ©Zuzanna Adamczewska-Bolle 

In the following months, Aspivix will approach new challenges towards distributing and commercialisation of Carevix™ primary in Europe and the US. To achieve new successful milestones, Aspivix will move the needle through collaborations with centres of excellence throughout Europe and with global partners highly engaged in making contraception always more accessible and gynecology now modern. To support these new developments, Aspivix will continue seeking the support of investors dedicated to women’s health and improved healthcare.

Thank you very much, Mathieu! We wish you all the best to continue advancing in the gynecology sector as you are already doing!