Breakthrough Health Solutions Lead the 2025 WIPO Global Awards

Since its launch in 2022, the WIPO Global Awards have celebrated exceptional small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), startups, and university spinouts that use intellectual property (IP) to drive impactful innovation. This year, the program received a record-breaking 783 entries, from which 10 winners were selected across five sectors: Health, Environment, Agri-food, Creative Industries, and ICT. Each sector saw one SME and one startup recognized for their outstanding work.

2025 Health Sector Winners: Transforming Lives

Hummingbird Bioscience (Singapore) – SME Winner

Hummingbird Bioscience is a cutting-edge drug discovery company focused on developing transformative medicines for hard-to-treat diseases. Their work centers on creating clinical-stage antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates to treat autoimmune diseases and cancers.

Their leading product, HMBD-001, is a monoclonal antibody that targets HER3, a protein linked to tumor growth and drug resistance. Backed by a proprietary machine learning platform, the company's innovations are protected by a strong portfolio of patents and trade secrets.

In 2021, Hummingbird secured $125 million in Series C financing and continues to operate under a licensing business model, enabling pharmaceutical companies to access and build on its platform for R&D and market expansion.

Glovatrix (India) – Startup Winner

Glovatrix, a self-funded Indian startup, has developed smart gloves that translate Indian Sign Language (ISL) into spoken and written language in real time. These gloves aim to improve employment opportunities for deaf individuals, allowing them to work in customer-facing roles in sectors such as hospitality.

The gloves integrate several proprietary technologies, including AI algorithms, app development, cloud infrastructure, and 3D printing. The innovation is currently protected by an Indian patent, with an additional filing through the PCT system in the United States of America.

Founder Aishwarya Karnataki, who also won the inaugural Best Youth Entrepreneur Award, emphasized in her acceptance speech,“Glovatrix is not just about innovation, but about inclusion.”

Innovations Beyond the Health Category with Health Impact

While not listed under the Health category, two other winners are also tackling global health challenges:

Unitree Robotics (China) – ICT Startup Winner

Unitree Robotics is developing humanoid and quadruped robots to replace humans in several settings, including hazardous jobs such as utility inspections, rescue missions, and exploration. These robots enhance occupational health and safety by reducing human exposure to high-risk jobs, delivering broader public health benefits.

PhageLab (Chile) – Agri-food SME Winner

PhageLab’s bacteriophage-based treatment targets avian pathogenic E. coli, a major cause of mortality in poultry. This innovation offers an effective alternative to broad-spectrum antibiotics, helping to curb the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and supporting the One Health approach that links animal, human, and environmental health.

Continued Momentum for Health Innovations

Health innovations have consistently featured strongly in the WIPO Global Awards. In 2024, six of the nine winners came from the health sector. Each awardee receives a customized training and mentorship package to scale their operations, leverage its IP portfolio, expand internationally, and increase their global impact.

Several past WIPO Global Award winners have made remarkable progress post-award: Lucence Lifesciences (Singapore, 2022) raised $46 million and expanded to the U.S. Centro de Retina Medica y Quirúrigca (Mexico, 2023) is building a global network for its retinal drug delivery system; and PONS Teknoloji (Turkey, 2024) went on to win the HealthCare Lab accelerator program in Turkey and has fast-tracked its AI development since.

Conclusion: A Launchpad for Global Health Solutions

The WIPO Global Awards continue to serve as a powerful platform for health-focused innovators to transition from lab to market. With robust IP support, mentorship, and visibility, winners can scale production, reach global populations, and contribute meaningfully to healthcare systems around the world. The 2025 cohort once again demonstrates that SMEs and startups are at the forefront of solving some of the world’s most urgent health challenges and can amplify their capacity and impact by leveraging IP.