House of BioHealth Extension Set for 2021 Completion

The extension of Luxembourg's House of BioHealth (HoBH) in Esch-Belval is set to be completed in 2021.

The House of Biohealth is an accommodation structure for companies in the field of biotechnologies, ICT and environmental technologies, the result of collaboration between the Ministry of the Economy, the ZARE and private investors. Targeting an innovative industry with high investment needs in research and development (R&D), the HoBH offers a turnkey hosting solution to healthcare technology companies by offering them suitable spaces allowing them to be quickly operational with their laboratory activity. It is considered one of the concrete achievements of the government's economic diversification strategy, of which the HealthTech sector is one of the pillars.

Since its inauguration in January 2015, the development of the HoBH was planned to take place in several phases. The third and final extension will be completed in 2021, making it possible to host up to 600 researchers on nearly 9,500 m2 of surface area for laboratories and 5,500 m2 of surface area for offices. The Ministry of the Economy supports the public-private partnership project by providing a rental guarantee.

Nine companies (SME and VSB) and two public research laboratories (Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) and Luxembourg Center for Systems Biomedicine (LSCB)) currently occupy the site, where around 450 people are employed. The fields of activity are varied and reflect the diversity of the Luxembourg HealthTech sector, ranging from diagnostics to medical devices and digital health.

During his visit to the HoBH on Thursday, Luxembourg's Minister of the Economcy, Franz Fayot, visited the spaces planned for the extension of the infrastructure, as well as several companies occupying the site. These included: Fast Track diagnostics, a spin-off of the Laboratoires Reunited that was requested to produce the molecular diagnostic kits deployed in Luxembourg as part of large-scale testing; Flen Health, a Belgian company that develops medical devices such as medical gels for the healing of burns; Luxembourg Sanitary Control Laboratory (Laboratoire Luxembourgeois du contrôle sanitaire - LLUCS), which performs analyses allowing the control of hygiene and food safety standards (HACCP), bacteriological and chemical quality water and air quality; PM International, a company of German origin that develops and markets food, sports nutrition and weight loss supplements as well as cosmetics; the ITTM, a start-up offering the services necessary to store, transfer and process medical data from clinical trials; Tolerogenics, a spin-off of the LIH active in the field of allergy and autoimmune diseases.

At the end of his visit, Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot stated: “After five years of existence, I am delighted with the proven success of the House of BioHealth and its third extension planned for 2021 which contributes more the attractiveness of the ecosystem. The grouping of companies within the HoBH allows important synergies which often give rise to new opportunities thanks to the mixing of activities relating to public research with commercial activities on a common site. Also, in these times of health crisis, the HealthTech sector assumes all its importance as a vector of economic and health resilience for the whole country".