Belgian IT company Ontoforce on the brink of American breakthrough
The Belgian company Ontoforce is about to conclude an agreement with two major American pharmaceutical companies. Ontoforce's search engine, developed for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, is in high demand as it can speed up the process of drug manufacturing.
Ontoforce, founded in 2011, designed the web application Disqover, a smart search engine which considers the semantic meaning between words. In doing so the search engine, nicknamed Google of the pharmaceutical industry, saves time in the initial phase of clinical trials. Its advantages are considerable, with decreasing research costs and quicker access to medicines for patients.
Two major American pharmaceutical companies are currently carrying out a final test before launching Disqover globally. In the long term, Ontoforce wishes to open a subsidiary in America as almost all of the pharmaceutical and biotech companies’ headquarters are located there. Nevertheless, the company does not intend to leave Belgium. On the contrary, Ontoforce wants to further expand in the country as there is a huge amount of talent with IMEC, iMinds and the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology.
Paradoxically, Belgian pharmaceutical and biotech companies are not completely sold on Disqover yet. Indeed, companies in Belgium have adopted a 'wait and see' attitude until Ontoforce has proven its viability. Ontoforce hopes that the American breakthrough will lead to an increased interest for the web application in Belgium.