Nestle Health Science will become operational on 1 January 2011. It will have access to external scientific and technological know-how through Nestle’s innovation network as well as a number of venture capital funds in which the group has interests.
Luis Cantarell, president and CEO, will report to Paul Bulcke in his capacity as administrateur delegue of the board of directors of Nestle Health Science, which is chaired by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe.
The Nestle Institute of Health Sciences will be part of Nestle’s global R&D network. It will be run by Emmanuel Baetge, former chief scientific officer of ViaCyte, a biotech company based in San Diego, who will report to Nestle chief technology officer Werner Bauer and a steering committee composed of both Nestle and external members.
The institute will be based in the multi-disciplinary scientific environment of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, where Nestle is already involved in two life science initiatives.
Brabeck-Letmathe said that the combination of health economics, changing demographics and advances in health science show that Nestle’s existing healthcare systems, which focus on treating sick people, are not sustainable and need redesigning.
Cantarell said that personalised health science nutrition will create shared value, both for Nestle and for society, by successfully preventing, improving and treating acute and chronic medical conditions.
Baetge said that the institute will create and deliver world class excellence in biomedical research to better understand human diseases and ageing as influenced by genetics, metabolism and environment.