Partnerships

Partnerships

Janssen's activities in Belgium cover a number of areas. Research and development, setting up clinical studies, production, and distribution, making our treatments accessible and improving care... We have each step of the value chain in-house. In practice, this translates into numerous partnerships and continuous dialogue.

Our strategic collaborations and partnerships within the Life Sciences ecosystem are focused on continuous innovation in Belgium. We work together with universities, research institutions and hospitals, participate in public-private partnerships and stimulate innovative start-ups and scale-ups. Furthermore, we also enter into dialogue with healthcare professionals, governments and policy makers to bring our innovations to the patient and to guarantee the accessibility and affordability of healthcare.


Together with all these actors, we work on various themes such as the early translation or support of innovative ideas into start-ups, the stimulation of new therapeutic developments such as cell and gene therapy and the preparation for certain important evolutions such as home care. We are looking at technological developments such as wearables and apps to better monitor patients from a distance. With the increasing digitization of the care process, we are increasingly able to make information transparent. Think of the interpretation of personal health data that allows us to detect diseases earlier. Moreover, based on artificial intelligence, we can also identify major trends. This is an important evolution that will lead to even better prevention and early detection, more targeted diagnostics and personalized treatments. In short: scientific and technological progress requires adjustments to the system, and it is our task to realize this revolution together with other actors within the healthcare system. 


In addition to working on concrete solutions for healthcare, we work intensively with other companies, NGOs, governments and schools on broad social themes. One such theme is girls in STEM ('Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics'), where we join forces in a broad consortium called 'Da's Geniaal'. This consortium includes eighteen Belgian companies and organizations that want to inspire children and young people between ten and fourteen years old around STEM. They introduce children, parents, and teachers to real 'STEM heroes': people who work in a STEM profession and inspire young people.

Partnerships throughout the entire value chain

At Janssen, we are convinced that cooperation is the key to solving all these future challenges. As a global health company, we are proud to be an important part of the Belgian Life Sciences ecosystem in which each player has its own and unique role. Our country is often described as the pharma valley because, despite its modest size, it houses the entire biopharmaceutical value chain, thanks in part to the presence of companies such as Janssen. This makes Belgium a pioneer in the field of innovation. This was recently confirmed in the context of the European Innovation Scoreboard 2021, where Belgium was crowned as one of the Innovation Leaders.1  According to this report, two of the key explanations are the attraction of (foreign) talent and the high level of investment in R&D. It is crucial that, as a country, we continue to support and attract innovation so that we can maintain our leading role within the European Union.


Within the strong Life Sciences ecosystem, there is a wide variety of public and private parties with which to collaborate. These include physicians and care providers, hospitals, patient organizations, universities, research institutions, start-ups and scale-ups, established companies, governments and policy makers. Janssen's ambition is to maintain and further develop sustainable relations with its partners throughout the entire value chain. In order to make a relevant contribution to improving the health of patients and the resilience of our society as a whole, we actively seek out these partnerships and invest heavily in the high-quality Belgian Life Sciences ecosystem.  Together, we think about the ways in which we can deploy innovative solutions or new techniques in the future throughout the entire production process, from the laboratory to the patient. We do this to achieve a resilient and efficient healthcare system. This is the core of our vision and we do this in various ways.


Our collaboration with academic institutions 

A crucial part of our innovation model is the close cooperation with teaching hospitals, universities and research institutions. We have signed innovation charters with several of these partners. An innovation charter is part of an initiative to exchange more knowledge and expertise, stimulate scientific talent and bring innovative developments to the patient faster. For example, we continue to focus on innovation in the design and execution of clinical studies, we stimulate research into cancer and nanomedicines, we focus on smart production methods and we use data sciences and artificial intelligence in scientific research in order to improve the patient’s care pathway, among other things. 

“We need each other in order to achieve the best results. We are all elements of one big puzzle.”

Werner Verbiest

Strategic Alliance Manager

PH HUMAN App

Innovative Medicines Initiative, partnership at the European level

COVID-19: CARE Consortium  

Werner Verbiest: "Janssen as connector"

JLABS, our incubator for start-ups

Belgium also has a wealth of biotech start-ups. JLABS is one of our ways of stimulating this innovation in the field. JLABS is a network of open innovation incubators for health sciences, offering start-ups active in this field access to the tools they need to take their ideas from concept to commercialization. In doing so, our employees support innovators in the life sciences sector and remove obstacles for them by improving access to infrastructure, the scientific community and specialized expertise. JLABS now has a total of 12 locations, each with a diverse range of state-of-the-art equipment, prototype labs and a year-long curriculum for innovators focused on commercial and business development. Our site in Beerse hosts “JLABS@BE”, the first European branch within the network JLABS is a "no-strings-attached" model, which means that entrepreneurs are free to develop their science while maintaining their intellectual property. You will also find examples of our collaboration with innovative start-ups in Chapter 5 in the context of the circular economy. 


Our consultation model with governments 

The increase in the number of chronically ill people, an increased focus on preventive care, the importance of integrated and multidisciplinary care pathways, digitization and care at a distance, the arrival of new cell and gene therapies, ... Our healthcare system faces a number of major challenges in the coming years. The accessibility and affordability of our healthcare system are major concerns for Janssen, and we believe that it is the joint task of all actors within the healthcare system to formulate answers to these issues. Our company is therefore in favor of a consultation model with governments and policymakers on certain healthcare-related social issues. You can read more about this in chapters 6and 8.