Poland lacks a vision for the commercialisation of medical innovations
The full article was published in Mam Startup.
Zachęcamy do lektury: https://mamstartup.pl/raport-o-finansowaniu-polskich-spolek-medtech-przez-vc-co-zbadali-autorzy-i-do-jakich-wnioskow-doszli/
Poland lacks a vision for the commercialisation of medical innovations. For years, Poland has been investing public and private funds in research and development, but in the field of medical innovation, one element is still missing: a vision for commercialisation. The result is paradoxical – we are able to fund R&D and build scientific and technological teams, but we are unable to guide an innovative product through the final, crucial stage: regulatory market entry. This applies particularly to medtech, which – unlike pharmaceuticals – requires not decades and billions of dollars, but relatively accessible capital investment. And yet, it remains overlooked in Poland.
Medtech is structurally cheaper and faster than the pharmaceutical sector: lower R&D costs, shorter innovation cycles, higher patent success rates, and a vast range of products – from dressings and syringes, through implants, to digital devices and sensors analysing health data in real time. It is a sector that is growing steadily in Europe and could become a genuine economic specialisation in Poland. Meanwhile, public debate and innovation policy continue to focus on ‘new medicines’, even though decision-makers themselves admit that Poland is unlikely to be their creator – because pharmaceutical R&D is extremely expensive and high-risk.
Instead, official narratives increasingly cast Poland in the role of a data provider for other countries’ AI models or a subcontractor for clinical trials. Yet even this role is sometimes called into question – because ‘it’s cheaper in China’. This is a defensive, short-sighted strategy that leads to technological drift. The greatest systemic flaw is not a lack of innovation, but the absence of a mechanism that would allow innovative medtech to move from the R&D phase to regulatory commercialisation – to obtain CE certification and enter the EU market with the approval of the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products.
In practice, this amounts to a waste of public and private funds. Projects funded by the Polish Development Fund, the National Centre for Research and Development or the Medical Research Agency reach technological maturity – and at this stage, the system breaks down. The finishing touches are missing: bridge capital for certification, regulatory support, and a predictable path to market entry. As a result, innovations developed in Poland are commercialised abroad or not commercialised at all.
The question, then, is not whether Poland has potential in medtech. It already does. The question is: do we want to be a mere producer and smart subcontractor, or a leader in medical technology? Because medtech is not a niche – it is one of the most ‘rewarding’ sectors of healthcare innovation in existence today. And it is precisely the one we systematically ignore.
