Second day of the working visit to the United States: Azenta signs a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of the Economy to ensure the continued development of B Medical Systems in Luxembourg

Publicly traded in the United States, Azentan is a leading global provider of biomedical science solutions. With operations in North America, Europe and Asia, the company provides a comprehensive suite of cold chain sample management solutions and genomic services in areas such as drug development, clinical research and advanced cellular therapies for leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academic and healthcare institutions around the world.

In October 2022, Azenta acquired B Medical Systems. Founded in 1979 in Luxembourg, B Medical Systems is a pioneer in the medical equipment industry and a world leader in the vaccine cold chain, present in over 140 countries and holding over 100 patents. As a result of the pandemic, B Medical Systems had seen its order book explode and therefore proceeded to expand its site by building, with the financial support of the Ministry of the Economy, a new production hall for the latest generation of equipment, with a surface area of approximately 4,500 sqm.

Confirming Azenta's willingness to preserve the production activities of its Luxembourg subsidiary B Medical Systems and to continue the projects undertaken by the subsidiary until then, the memorandum of understanding details, on the one hand, the framework of cooperation in research, development and innovation that will be carried out in Luxembourg by Azenta and, on the other hand, confirms the intention of the Ministry of the Economy to continue to support the development of the company. The alliance with Azenta should also give B Medical Systems access to new markets, thanks to the group's extensive network of customers in countries where B Medical has not previously been present.

The signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding took place in the presence of several high-level representatives of the Ministry of the Economy, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Office in New York, Luxinnovation, Azenta, and B Medical Systems.

The Minister of Economy stated: "The fact that a world-renowned company such as Azenta has acquired B Medical Systems, one of our industrial flagships, demonstrates the dynamism of the Luxembourg health technology sector, which is one of the pillars of Luxembourg's economic diversification strategy. Through this memorandum of understanding, our aim is to continue the good collaboration that already existed with B Medical Systems, especially in its future research, development and innovation projects, as well as to identify possible synergies."

"We look forward to continuing our partnership and engagement with the Luxembourg government. B Medical Systems, which recently became part of Azenta, has a long history of operations in Luxembourg, and we intend to build on this already strong track record of growth and innovation," concluded Steve Schwartz, President and CEO of Azenta.

In parallel to the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, the delegation from the Ministry of Health, led by the Minister of Health, Paulette Lenert, went to meet with representatives of the Mass Health Policy Commission to understand the major trends in public health and how to support this development by setting a national framework.

The second day in Boston included an interview with the Harvard Business School. The objective of the interview was to understand the role of information technology and the cultural and organisational changes needed to implement "value-based healthcare". At the global level, in health care, it can be seen that rising costs are not always accompanied by improvements in the quality of care. The "value-based health care" movement seeks to address this problem by redefining how health care systems measure success in terms of the outcomes that matter most to the patient. In this context, the delegation also met with the start-up company Avant-garde Health, which has developed a set of solutions enabling health system actors to put the principles of value-based health care into practice.

The delegation then visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lab (MIT Lab) and the Mass eHealth Institute.

At the end of the day, the participants took the train to New York, the second stage of the trip.

Press release by the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Health