Our partnership with Sanquin Health Solutions: Celebrating 3 years

In 2021, Catalyze and Sanquin Health Solutions, the parent company of Sanquin’s private activities, commenced a strategic partnership that continues today. To learn more about the impact of the partnership and the current focus of Sanquin Health Solutions, we spoke with Rogier van den Braak, Managing Director at SHS Group.

Rogier van den Braak, Managing Director at Sanquin Health Solutions. Picture provided by SHS.

Summary

Sanquin develop life-saving blood products, therapeutics, services, diagnostics and knowledge for health care. Sanquin Health Solutions (SHS), the parent company of Sanquin’s private activities, includes Sanquin’s activities in the areas of diagnostics, technology valorisation and campus development, as well as Sanquin’s holdings in start ups.  As strategic partner of Sanquin health Solutions (SHS), Catalyze provides support across the different arms of SHS, from Sanquinnovate (valorisation), to Sanquin Real Estate for the development of the Health & Innovation District (HID), and through funding applications and business consultancy support for Sanquin Research and HID residents. This has included business cases, strategic funding plans, and multiple grant applications.

“Catalyze is a very important partner for the financing of our campus ambitions.” – Rogier van den Braak, Managing Director SHS Group

Sanquin Health Solutions Today: Valorisation of IP and Development of Health & Innovation District

Today, Rogier explains, SHS is primarily focussed on two main activities: IP and knowledge valorisation, and development of the Health & Innovation District (HID). Sanquinnovate, founded in 2017, focuses on valorisation of IP generated by Sanquin Research, for the creation of new value-adding products and services to tackle challenges in blood-related disease fields. Since the HID opened in 2021, start-ups, scale-ups and knowledge institutions have been working together on advancements in red biotech.

Rogier remarks on the impact of the creation of Sanquinnovate, and later, the HID:

“Something we learned after establishing Sanquinnovate, was that in order to be innovative, you need to cooperate with other partners. Through Sanquinnovate we became a much more open organisation, where we formed connections with other companies creating a project flow to our company. We really learned what the benefits of collaboration were.”

Rogier continues, “We decided to bring that spirit of collaboration and innovation into our real estate portfolio. This led us to our second big activity today, which is the development of our Health & Innovation District, a new biotech campus in Amsterdam. The HID houses not only Sanquin Research departments, but also companies and institutions that are in our network.”

Supporting the Health & Innovation District ecosystem

In 2021, SHS started with thinking about campus development and began letting empty space on their campus to biotech companies and other institutions looking for premises and a closer relationship with Sanquin.

Rogier recalls, “That initial trial was quite successful, so we decided to establish a model for repurposing and rebuilding our campus, with heavy investments. This became the Health & Innovation District, which now houses 18 residents, including Sanquin Research.”

Late in 2021 was also when SHS and Catalyze’s partnership began, although this was not the start of the collaboration.

Rogier points out, “We know Catalyze a long time already, so we have done a lot of projects together. Both in the biotech research field, supporting our researchers in finding funding, and in the sustainability field, through our real estate activities. And I think they are both Catalyze’s fields of expertise.

“Within the HID community, Catalyze’s support is a valuable part of our partnership because we can always refer our residents – largely biotech startups and scale-ups –  to Catalyze, who give them advice and support towards securing funding for their projects.”

Identifying sustainability-driven real estate funding initiatives

Two years ago, SHS were in the process of developing the plans to repurpose what is now called the Colton building, which opened in the HID campus in May 2024.

“In that effort, we were also helped a big deal by Catalyze. When we were in the process of developing the plans to refurbish what is now the Colton building, Catalyze made us aware of a funding option from the Amsterdam municipality to finance the project, which helped us to accelerate the development opportunity.

“Catalyze is a very proactive partner, if something interesting pops up, we get a call and they help us to see whether we have a suitable project to get the funding. Then, they move fast to make sure we meet the deadline. Based on the success of our endeavours together – and the knowledge in the Catalyze team – it is logical that we now continue to look at further funding options for our new building programme with Catalyze.”

Rogier adds, “In that way, Catalyze is also a very important partner for the financing of our campus ambitions.”

First phase development of the Health & Innovation District is now underway

SHS are currently undergoing their significant development plans for the HID, with multiple phases of building work planned across 6 new projects, with the aim to double the space for life sciences facilities at the campus. Catalyze delivered funding strategy for the first phase, now underway. This is the first step towards a significantly redesigned HID, that can provide the platform for Sanquin Research and associated life science companies to build towards their future vision.

“Sanquin Research has a goal to establish the blood bank of the future and see if blood bank products that we now deliver to the hospitals in the Netherlands can be built in the lab instead of using donors. This goal requires a lot of research and that requires a lot of infrastructure and equipment.”

Rogier finishes, “Our vision is to give them the best possible housing to help them achieve their research goals, and to combine that with making the premises and expensive equipment accessible for biotech startups and institutions working in the same field who have the same goal – to save patients and benefit society.”