Health Access leads Estonian, Finnish, Swedish and Latvian health tech companies to new markets
With the help of the Central Baltic Interreg programme, health clusters from Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Latvia are launching the CH Health Access project for the advancement of health tech entrepreneurship. The project will help introduce Estonian, Finnish, Swedish and Latvian health tech companies, including e-health and biotechnology companies, to new markets further afield.
Külle Tärnov, the head of the CH Health Access project and of Tehnopol’s health tech unit, said: “This project unites the health clusters of all four countries, and with their experience we can help companies launch sales on new markets. Each cluster has chosen a far-flung market with a reliable, pre-existing partner and established cooperation relations and where the companies in that particular cluster have already made initial sales.”
The Finnish health cluster BioTurku will open the way to the rapidly growing South Korean market, while Tehnopol and Enixus from Latvia will be relying on their partners in the United States (in Silicon Valley and Pennsylvania). Tartu Biotechnology Park will draw on its experience of the Indian market and the Swedish medical technology cluster will introduce a very different kind of market in the form of Uganda.
The CH Health Access project will last for three years, during which between 17 and 22 companies will be selected from the region for every market. These companies will have to see one of these markets as their target market and their team must be prepared to take on the process of entering the market with their product. The South Korean and US market programmes will start in the first quarter of 2016, with the other two markets (India and Uganda) to follow in May.
Tärnov said: “The programme will include introductions to the respective health tech markets as well as individual guidance for each company, business missions for the target markets, gathering information and finding prospective partners. We expect the companies to get as far as initial sales on their target markets.” She added that since the companies know nothing about the opportunities these distant markets represent, and since all four partner clusters wish to establish long-term relations with their respective market partners, the project will begin with market introductions by experienced partners.
Tallinn Science Park Tehnopol is the lead partner in the CH Health Access project. The other project partners are Tartu Biotechnology Park, Turku Science Park, Enixus Baltics Latvia and the Swedish Medtech cluster. The project is being financed via the Central Baltic Interreg programme.
