By Danli Zhou, Head of Marketing & Communications
Congratulations to Cellestia Biotech for winning the swissnex Innovative Startup/Entrepreneur Award at the Sino-Swiss Business Awards 2019 organized by SwissCham China! Our CEO Dr. Felix Moesner, a Guest of Honor at the event held in the evening of November 1, handed the award to Cellestia CEO Michael Bauer and CSO Raj Lehal onstage with words of congratulations. The award is entirely dedicated to Innovation and startups, putting Switzerland’s world-leading innovation on the main stage. Cellestia Biotech CSO Raj Lehal participated in the Venture Leaders China 2018 program, a 10-day pitching and fundraising roadshow across 5 Chinese megacities, co-organized by swissnex China and Venturelab. According to CSO Raj Lehal, the company have already raised multiple millions CHF from China, and initiated a partnership with Tianjin Hospital. Other Guests of Honour at the event included Swiss Ambassador to China HE Bernardino Regazzoni, Head of Presence Switzerland Ambassador Nicolas Bideau, Swiss Tourism Director China Simon Bosshart, Swiss Sport Legend Bernhard Russi and Nestle Greater China Region CEO Rashid Qureshi.
Cellestia Biotech, a clinical-stage biotech company based in Basel is developing innovative first-in-class cancer drugs based on its innovative discovery platform. The company’s lead development candidate CB-103 targeted cancer therapy is a small molecule that inhibits the NOTCH signalling pathway –a key factor in certain cancers and in resistance to standard treatments. The company is conducting phase one clinical trials of its lead drug candidate in cancer patients in Europe, with planned expansion into China and the USA.
Our congratulations also to the other nominees - Swiss startups holo|one (Dominik Trost) and Foodcoin Group AG (Gregory Arzumanian) for their contributions towards furthering Sino-Swiss collaborations in innovation and entrepreneurship! Both holo|one and Foodcoin Group joined 20 other Swiss startups at the #SwissTech Pavilion at CES ASIA 2019, while holo|one also participated in the Venture Leaders China 2019 roadshow. They joined the swissnex table alongside Prof. Jay S. Siegel (Tianjin University), Roger Parodi, (Silverhorn Group), Simon Vericel (Influence Matters), Douwe van den Oever (DomainShift.com) and Sandro Wirth, S&T Section, Embassy of Switzerland.
