EPITHELIX SARL

Their core work

Epithelix is a Swiss biotech SME that develops and commercializes reconstituted human airway epithelium models — three-dimensional cell cultures that replicate the human respiratory tract without using animals. Their flagship product, MucilAir, provides pharmaceutical companies, academic labs, and regulatory bodies with a ready-to-use human tissue model for testing inhaled drugs, viruses, and immune responses. In EU projects, they contribute this platform as an experimental tool: in OrganoVIR they applied their organoid expertise to study how viruses enter and damage respiratory tissue, while in FAIR they are testing a flagellin-based aerosol therapy against drug-resistant pneumonia, including supporting a Phase I clinical trial. Their value in any consortium is the ability to bridge cell biology and preclinical respiratory research with validated, human-relevant test systems.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Epithelix entered H2020 participation through a training network (OrganoVIR, MSCA-ITN) where the focus was methodological — building organoid and 3D culture tools for understanding viral biology, high-throughput antiviral screens, and early-career researcher training. Their more recent project (FAIR, RIA) marks a clear pivot toward translational, therapeutically-driven research: the keywords shift from cell biology platforms to immune signaling, nebulization, and a Phase I clinical trial for an antibiotic-resistant respiratory infection. The direction is unmistakably toward clinical relevance — from tool-provider in virology to active partner in drug development for lung infections.

Epithelix is moving from supplying cell models as a research instrument toward being an active experimental partner in translational and clinically-staged respiratory drug programs — making them increasingly valuable to pharmaceutical and biotech consortia targeting lung disease.

How they like to work

Epithelix consistently joins consortia as a partner or participant rather than leading them — they have never served as coordinator in H2020. This pattern fits a specialist contributor model: they bring a specific, hard-to-replicate experimental platform (airway epithelium models) that larger consortia need but cannot build in-house. Their 28 unique partners across 10 countries from just 2 projects signals broad demand for their capabilities and willingness to work across diverse research networks rather than a closed, recurring circle of partners.

Despite only two H2020 projects, Epithelix has connected with 28 distinct consortium partners spanning 10 countries — an unusually wide reach for such a small project portfolio, reflecting the cross-border demand for their airway tissue platforms. Their network spans both academic training consortia (MSCA-ITN) and competitive research grants (RIA), covering Northern, Western, and Southern Europe.

What sets them apart

Epithelix occupies a rare niche: a commercial SME that produces standardized, validated human airway tissue models specifically designed for research and regulatory use, including inhalation toxicology and respiratory pathogen testing. Unlike academic labs that develop one-off organoid systems, Epithelix operates as a reproducible platform provider — their models meet the consistency standards required for regulatory submissions and clinical-grade preclinical studies. For any consortium working on respiratory disease, inhaled therapeutics, or antiviral drug screening, they represent a direct path to human-relevant data without animal studies.

Highlights from their portfolio

• FAIR
  The largest and longest project (2020–2026, EUR 482,896 EC funding), addressing drug-resistant pneumonia with a flagellin aerosol immunotherapy that has advanced to Phase I clinical trial — a rare progression to clinical stage for a 2-project SME.
• OrganoVIR
  An MSCA Innovative Training Network that positioned Epithelix as a knowledge provider in organoid-based virology, connecting their platform to a pan-European doctoral training programme and 28 consortium partners.