A.Catalyst Network

The South Cone Hub’s vision is to harness the power of open innovation to improve patient health and quality of life, and enhance opportunities in the health technology sector.

Driven by strategic pillars such as sustainability and solution scalability, and an open innovation approach, the hub helps to position AstraZeneca as the healthcare partner of choice in the region.

Contact: Gisele Lidia Chamula

The Ecuador iHUB’s main objective is to strengthen the innovation ecosystem and drive digital transformation to improve the quality of healthcare services.

It strongly believes in the power of partnership, global AI solutions, and actively scouting for and supporting local talent – recognising the potential of these methods to improve early diagnosis, increase disease awareness, and drive evidence generation. 

The Brazil Innovation, Partnership and Ecosystem (IPE) hub focuses on early diagnosis, disease awareness, data generation and electronic medical record interconnection to help the Brazilian healthcare system reduce mortality rates and improve quality of life.

The hub's physical space is located in the largest public Institute of Technology and Research in Brazil and is part of the Secretary of Science, Technology and Innovation in the state of São Paulo.

Contact: Dante Guilherme de Jesus Lopes

The Colombia iHUB focuses on strengthening the digital ecosystem and developing technological solutions that add value for all stakeholders in the healthcare system.

The hub is committed to the progression and consolidation of initiatives that, through health innovation, contribute towards improving the quality of life for thousands of people in Colombia. 

The Mexico Hub aims to change and improve the way that local primary care level challenges are solved by co-creating innovative solutions with its innovation ecosystem allies.

In doing so, it seeks to generate direct impact on patients by enhancing their quality of life. 

Contact: Norma Moreno

The Peru iHUB’s mission is to engage with health and innovation ecosystems and promote collaboration between its partners and allies, through knowledge generation and harnessing the user experience of emerging technologies.

With partners from the public and private sectors, the hub facilitates teamwork to identify challenges and implement solutions that close the gaps in patient healthcare. 

The France-based hub aspires to be an agent of change within therapy areas, addressing critical unmet needs and optimising both the patient pathway and healthcare organisation efficiency.

Through collaboration and co creation with various external partners – including start-ups, health authorities and patient associations – the hub aims to nurture local talent, harness real-world data, and develop solutions to generate better patient outcomes. 

The Portuguese Sustainability Innovation Hub strives to accelerate net zero health systems by uniting diverse stakeholders – including government institutions, academia, the national health service, start-ups and investors – in an innovative ecosystem dedicated to healthcare sustainability.

It fosters networking and interaction, with the aim of educating society on the critical role that everybody plays in the decarbonisation of the NHS.

Through robust partnerships, the hub is helping to shape the future of healthcare for a healthier planet. 

Contact: Cátia Ferreira

The UK-based AZ Exchange is a global Science and Business Mentoring initiative to interact with start-ups across Cambridge, London, Oxford and beyond.

Working with partners including the Cambridge Judge Business School, Lucy Cavendish College, StartCodon and the Babraham Research Institute, the hub supports start-ups across the life sciences ecosystem, offering mentorship and support to secure funding and refine their strategic planning. 

Located in MIND – the Milano Innovation District – the Italy hub brings together some of the best solution-oriented minds, including academics, governments, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders, associated with business networking engine, Federated Innovation. Together, they work to ignite innovation and unlock the change needed to secure more equitable healthcare.

By forging partnerships that help to drive technological innovation, the hub aims to create a sustainable healthcare system that meets patient needs and ultimately improves quality of life.

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Health Innovation Hub Romania was launched in May 2023 by the Ministry of Health, the G6-UMF University Alliance, and the Local American Working Group. It aims to develop research and innovation capacity for the entire healthcare sector, and thereby improve medical services for Romanian patients.

Two of the hub’s key objectives are to connect Romania and its researchers to global innovation and research platforms, and to accelerate the availability and exchange of best practices in health innovation at a local and international level.

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The Forum is a unique space designed to popularise and promote health, science, modern technologies and access to healthcare. It aims to facilitate a dialogue with external stakeholders and provide accessible education in socially important areas.

It interacts with start-ups, healthcare stakeholders and academic ecosystems to leverage local data, computer science excellence and policy solutions – and ultimately address challenges and improve healthcare systems.

It also collaborates with the Poland Health Innovation Hub and the Innovation Health Foundation, as well as universities and non-governmental organisations.

The Polish government strongly supports the hub, which aims to catalyse the delivery of healthcare innovation throughout the country. 

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The Spain hub works in partnership with Wayra and the innovation platform South Summit to boost the innovative ecosystem of the country.

It focuses on addressing the unmet needs of the health system, mitigating patient pain points and improving patient experiences. Solutions developed by the hub are designed to enhance identification, diagnosis and the monitoring of chronic pathologies. 

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The African Cluster Hub is committed to driving digital transformation and innovation across Africa.

Its ambition is to revolutionise healthcare for patients across the continent by creating the patient-centric digital health solutions of tomorrow, and generating real-world disease prevalence data.

The hub’s vision is to reimagine access to healthcare for all patients in Africa, no matter where they live or what their economic circumstances are.

To achieve these goals, work will focus on four key areas: education and awareness, early screening and diagnosis, technology and connectivity, and data generation. 

Contact: Jonathan Calder

The Egypt hub’s mission is to provide innovative solutions to support the direction of the Egyptian government to uplift the healthcare ecosystem through digital transformation.

Partners within the hub work together to address healthcare challenges using next generation technologies. Activity is centred around four key pillars: Early Screening and Diagnosis with AI; Generating Data insights and Evidence Generation; Digital Education and Mentorship; and Driving Digital Health New Innovations.

Contact: Laila Helmy

iCampus is committed to creating an open, collaborative and globalised ecosystem for innovation.

They have formed a national collaborative ecosystem that covers Wuxi, Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Qingdao and Yixing.

iCampus is focused on becoming an industrial co-operation platform for domestic and overseas innovation companies, including across drug, diagnostic, device and digital platforms. 

Contact: Chandler Chen

The GCC innovation hub was launched in 2022 to establish a Life Sciences hub with a mission to transform healthcare delivery in the region.

The hub aims to foster global alliances and partnerships to drive healthcare innovation and collaboration on research for insights and data generation. Its primary focus is on enhancing disease prevention and care by transforming disease pathways through early screening and diagnostics solutions, leveraging advanced digital technologies and AI, while driving policy reforms.

The hub also places a strong emphasis on cultivating a culture of innovation and continuously enhancing its capabilities, such as omnichannel strategies, lean start-up principles and entrepreneurial mindset. 

Contact: Semra Asan

The Malaysia hub was established in partnership with Sunway iLabs to support the development of a more robust primary care ecosystem, and to address the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases.

The site at Sunway iLabs provides a strategic platform for R&D, digital and commercial collaborations with local stakeholders.

The hub has also partnered with Malaysian Research Accelerator for Technology and Innovation – Malaysia’s central research and innovation commercialisation agency under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. 

Contact: Sonesh Kalra

The Hong Kong Hub is built on collaboration with different partners, which include the ‘Incubio’ co-incubation programme with Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP).

The hub looks to strengthen cross-sector collaboration, incubate and nurture start-ups, and develop solutions to address local unmet need and healthcare challenges. 

Contact: Grahm Ho

The India Hub was created to integrate innovative, economical technologies and digital solutions into patient journeys to deliver better experiences and outcomes. The hub looks to foster a collaborative ecosystem of open innovation, and ultimately improve quality of care.

One of the hub’s main initiatives is Project Heart Beat, which aims to drive timely diagnosis and intervention for acute cardiac syndrome. Hub partner Tricog developed the InstaECG™ machine, which enables local healthcare professionals to take electrocardiograms (ECGs) and upload them to the cloud. The data are then interpreted by its state-of-the-art algorithm and remote physicians using a purpose-built app. On average, detection using this technology takes less than 5 minutes, and has helped physicians at poorly equipped primary healthcare centres to correctly diagnose over 133,000 patients with chest pain. Of all ECGs analysed, 45.9% were abnormal and required intervention, while 6.9% were critical myocardial infarctions (MIs) and patients were sent on to the tertiary centre.

Contact: Subhankar Basak

The Singapore hub was developed in collaboration with the region’s leading healthcare organisations and innovators to uplift existing healthcare capabilities.

By utilising advancements in technology, the hub looks to reimagine the healthcare ecosystem in Singapore and deliver valuable benefits to patients, with the support of academics, startups, healthcare institutions and the government. 

Contact: Priscilla Peh

The Taiwan Hub has established a partnership network across various fields, including sciences, healthcare organisations, medical technology start-ups, local technology incubators and venture capital.

Their vision is to serve as a gateway to innovative solutions for AstraZeneca, acting as a portal to develop, validate and implement patient-centric digital solutions in the real world. 

i2.JP is one of the largest healthcare open innovation networks in Japan.

It not only explores collaboration opportunities with AstraZeneca, but also connects multiple stakeholders to one another, helping to drive the co-creation of practical, optimal solutions and realise the ‘patient-centric business model’, with a focus on the 4Ds (Diagnostic, Device, Digital, Drug). 

The Australia and New Zealand A.Catalyst Hub, established in 2020, drives patient-centred healthcare delivery through open innovation and external ecosystem collaboration.

The newly established CO-LAB, a physical innovation centre, pursues collaborative co-creation within and between organisations, using patient and caregiver priorities as the starting point. CO-LAB helps bring together HCPs, industry experts, PAGs, and health start-ups to identify opportunities to improve patient health and quality of life.

The Hub strengthens the broader healthcare and life science ecosystem through collaboration with governments, universities and venture capital, and supports health science innovators through AstraZeneca’s global mentoring programme. 

Contact: Kumaran Mani

Contact: Janna McCann