Report: This was Biovia’s first General Assembly
Biovia (FBM vzw) held its General Assembly on 27 May at KBC headquarters in Brussels. This was the first GA following the merger of MEDVIA and flanders.bio into the new cluster Biovia.
The meeting, attended by some 60 representatives from the membership base, was led by Biovia CEO Ann Van Gysel and board chair Jérôme Van Biervliet, managing director of VIB. They started off by welcoming the 18 new cluster members that joined since the launch of Biovia. These new members were officially approved by the members in attendance.
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They then presented the ad interim board of directors of Biovia, 10 of which will remain on the board. They thanked the interim board members who are stepping down for their service and commitment – Marieke Vermeersch (Galapagos), Erwin Blomsma (ViroVet), Ward Servaes (moveUP), Gil Beyen (Montis Biosciences), Bart Van Acker (QbD), Herman Verrelst (Heran Partners) and Dirk Reyn (Bioqube Ventures).
A special thank you went out to Herman and Dirk, who acted as independent chairs on the ad interim board during the merger and were instrumental in ensuring that the process was carried out smoothly, professionally and accurately.
New board members introduce themselves
Biovia then required five new board members to be elected – three from the medical biotech sector, one from healthtech and one service provider. Three applications were received from the medical biotech sector and one from healthtech, resulting in all of them being elected.
These include two previous board members representing new companies – Erwin Blomsma of Benno Therapeutics and Herman Verrelst of Gynaia. The two other new board members are Lucas Decuypere of Allegro and Philippe Sollie of Flen Health. They all introduced themselves and their companies.
“I do not want to – nor should I have to – move from Belgium to execute my craft”
Finally, the six applicants for the service provider board position presented themselves to the audience, explaining why they should be elected to the board. Attendees heard their personal and professional stories, as they emphasized what they would bring to the organization and how they could fill the gaps in current expertise.
Then came the exciting part – the vote! Nancy Cottigny, founder of Ad Hoc Clinical, won the board seat. Ad Hoc Clinical is a CRO that assists in the set-up and management of clinical research. She wanted to join the board, she said, “because my company is anchored in Flanders, in Belgium, and I do not want to – nor should I have to – move from Belgium to execute my craft. Clinical trials in Belgium – despite being very good at it and very good at health innovation as a whole – are decreasing dramatically. Whereas clinical trial numbers around the world are increasing.”
Was it her tri-colors that put her over the top? Nancy Cottigny won the board vote
Ann Van Gysel said that she appreciated the members “electing a board member who brings this expertise to the board. This is a crucial stronghold from Flanders and Belgium that we re losing.” This is not only affecting the industry, she emphasized, “but the whole value chain, including our hospitals and patients.”
The Board of Directors will convene in July and is tasked with appointing a new board chair and a maximum of two new independent board members. They will assess the needs of Biovia in considering who to potentially invite to join the newly assembled board.
Biovia Finance Manger Marc Ost then took to the stage to go over the financials of MEDVIA and flanders.bio for 2024 and present the budget for Biovia for 2025. Once attendees approved the financials, it was time for Ann to present the new cluster.
She introduced the staff members who will represent the complementary domains – medtech, digital health, medical biotech, agtech and industrial biotech – and reminded everyone what Biovia stands for and the challenges it will tackle going forward. One of those is talent and the promotion of sciences in general. “The talent challenges – some of the people here tonight have mentioned it – the importance of innovation and science and the visibility of it, remains crucial,” Ann said. “We are really seeing it right now, and it’s something we are going to put an emphasis on going forward.”
She then announced that Biovia is taking over life science news platform BioVox from the QbD Group. “We want to amplify the visibility of our members and the ecosystem. We want to showcase the fantastic companies and research projects that we have here and encourage young people to study in the STEM disciplines. But we also want to boost our international profile. This will allow us to have a bigger voice in the challenges that will shape the future agenda.”
Biovia CEO Ann Van Gysel
The General Assembly ended with a round of applause for Biovia’s Supporting Partners, who work closely with the cluster to identify the needs of members and the initiatives that will put us all on the path to solving collective problems. The Supporting Partners are:
And before attendees headed out into the rainy evening, they raised a glass to Biovia, the innovation cluster forging a path to a healthier future for people and for the planet.