Deshpande Foundation and UMass Lowell’s M2D2 Announce First International MedTech Forum

On Thursday, October 8, six India-based life sciences startups will present their innovations to a virtual worldwide audience at the first-ever M2D2 International MedTech Forum. The Deshpande Foundation is sponsoring the event together with University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) Massachusetts Medical Device Development (M2D2) Center and it will bring attention to promising, life-saving ideas emerging from India’s vibrant and thriving innovation ecosystem. 

The Deshpande Foundation has a longstanding relationship with UML which has co-hosted the Deshpande Symposium for ten years. Following a visit by UML Vice Provost Steven Tello to IIT Madras’ Health Tech Innovation Center (HTIC) in 2018, the Foundation sponsored three teams from India in 2019 that applied and met the criteria for the annual M2D2 $200K Challenge. The teams highlighted the global caliber of innovation and device development in India and the Foundation was delighted to sponsor six Indian teams in 2020.

Earlier this year, the six Indian finalists were selected from among 250 entries, including over 40 from India. Unfortunately, the coronavirus crisis upset plans for in-person pitching originally scheduled for March. After deliberation, the main M2D2 $200K Challenge went online and moved to the fall. A separate event, the First International MedTech Forum, will be held on October 8^th from 9 am to 12 where the Indian finalists will pitch to a select panel of judges. Attendees will be able to meet with individual teams after the pitches in online breakout rooms for more in-depth discussions.

Anticipating a successful event, M2D2 and the Deshpande Foundation hopes to expand participation in the International MedTech Forum in 2021 with additional country teams supported by local country sponsors.

The six finalist teams represent incubators including HTIC from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai; NCL Innovation Park, Pune; and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. They are:

·     ChemBio—Plasmonic fiberoptic absorbance biosensor (P-FAB) technique - HTIC/IIT M

·     Cygenica—Oncology targeted delivery – NCL Innovation Park, Pune

·     Elchemyc—Electro-Chemo Therapy (ECT) treatment for tumor cells – Bengaluru

·     Fast Sense—Portable diagnostic kits for complex diseases - NCL Innovation Park, Pune

·     Mimyk—AR/VR and robotics for surgical training – IISc, Bengaluru

·       Nesa—Procedure to treat symptomatic uterine fibroids – IISc, Bengaluru

They will be pitching their ideas to a great judging panel consisting of leaders from the biotech, medtech and investing communities in Boston. The judges include:

·     John Conley, Co-founder, Gilliam Capital LLC, Member & Director, Launchpad Venture Group

·     Ragoo Raghunathan, Director of Business Development, InSphero

·     Henry Kay, Investor & Member, Boston Harbor Angels

·     Serban Georgescu, MD, MBA Canadian Consulate Boston, Mass Medical Angels

·     Sudhir Agrawal, Founder & President, ARNAY Sciences

·     Sujat Sukthankar, VP of Platform Engineering – CCMD, BD

The keynote will be delivered by Rekha Ranganathan, President, CAE Healthcare and former VP & GM, CT Core, Diagnostic Imaging at Philips Healthtech.

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