Innovation in the blood
To meet the growing treatment need linked to the explosion of chronic diseases, we want to continuously be inventing new healthcare solutions. We wish to conduct disruptive research projects that can change patients’ lives, such as the project underway on artificial skin: GENESIS.
We are pioneers: we developed the first ventilated dressing that let the wound breathe, we gave as many people as possible access to vitamins by distributing them in supermarkets, and we launched non-greasy tulle gras to treat and relieve burns. More recently, we have developed the first dressing that has demonstrated its effectiveness in the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers1, offering hope to patients and caregivers.
These innovations are supported by our research teams and our industry.
To meet the growing need for care linked to the explosion of chronic diseases, we are constantly seeking to invent new healthcare solutions. We want to conduct disruptive research projects that can change patients’ lives, such as the project underway on artificial skin: GENESIS.
Research to turn our ideas into concrete healthcare solutions
Our mission is to come up with and develop the responsible healthcare and healing solutions of the future, to meet the needs of patients and healthcare professionals. Our internationally cutting-edge research laboratories allow us to guarantee our patients best-in-class products with clinically proven effectiveness.
Our research team brings together almost 200 people representing all the stages in the innovation value chain: watch, research, innovation, business development, industrial property, development, clinical studies, scale-up. Their areas of expertise primarily focused on healing are now expanding into new fields, such as cosmetic medicine and neuroscience.
Clinical research, which is essential in our innovation process, makes it possible to demonstrate the efficacy of our products. Since 1997, we have carried out almost 55 clinical and observational studies among 60,000 patients.
We work with the best experts in the world. For this reason, we have forged external partnerships with numerous research institutes, such as the technological research division of the CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) and ENS (École Normale Supérieure) and encourage open innovation.
We continually invest in our R&D to enable us to conduct disruptive research projects that can change patients’ lives. For the 2020-2030 period, we are dedicating 300 million euros to improve the existing products via incremental research and to achieve disruptive innovations, such as artificial skin with GENESIS.
Industry: a strategic weapon to support our growth and innovation
Our industrial expertise plays a full role in the group’s development, allowing a rapid time-to-market, controlled quality and secure procurement. A third of the URGO Group’s staff works on industrial sites and we have created a textile training school in Veauche for jobs that are difficult to fill in order to be able to accelerate our recruitment.
We have built a unique industrial model that allows us to produce our healthcare solutions at the right time, place and price, to the required quality standards:
– We practise “double innovation”: when we develop a product, we also develop the manufacturing facilities required to produce it.
– We have a scale-up unit that fosters the link between research and production.
– We rely on our French industrial expertise and facilities to develop our business on a global scale. Our six industrial sites abroad produce in close proximity to their markets and adapt to local needs.
We are pursuing this particularly dynamic industrial strategy and have an 80-million-euro investment plan to develop and extend our plants over the 2020-2030 period.
1- Edmonds M, Lázaro JL, Piaggesi A, et al. Sucrose octasulfate dressing versus control dressing in patients with neuroischaemic diabetic foot ulcers (Explorer): an international, multicentre, double-blind, randomised, controlled trial. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. 20 December 2017. On-line. Etude menée avec UrgoStart Contact.
