The European Lifestars Awards recognize outstanding companies and leaders in biotechnology, healthcare, medical technology, and related sectors. The awards ceremony takes place annually as part of the LSX Festival in London and aims to honor particularly innovative companies and their achievements in various categories.
The awards recognize companies that have achieved significant breakthroughs, attracted transformative investments, or made remarkable contributions to the development of new technologies and therapies. The awards recognize not only young startups but also established companies that have distinguished themselves through successful financing rounds, strategic partnerships, or exceptional advances in research and development.
The award categories include the best financing rounds, investments, corporate strategies and innovation approaches in areas such as biotechnology, medical technology, health technology and digital health.
The Munich winning teams:
- Scirhom took third place in the "Series A Finance Raise of the Year" category. The startup secured a €63 million ($70 million) Series A financing round for its antibody therapy for autoimmune diseases in July.
- Catalym won first prize in the "Late-Stage Venture Round - Series C" category. The company completed a Series D financing round of €138 million (USD 150 million) in mid-2024. The fresh capital will be used to finance the Phase 2b development of Visugromab for the treatment of various types of cancer. The drug candidate Visugromab is designed to neutralize a specific protein that tumors use to protect themselves from the body's immune system. This should make tumors accessible to the immune system again, thus strengthening the immune response.
- Tubules not only received the first prize for the "Series B Financing Round of the Year," but also the overall award for "Biotech of the Year." The Munich-based biotech startup from Martinsried recently had a Series B financing of €128 million completed and signed a strategic licensing agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb to develop differentiated antibody drug conjugates (ADCs).
