CSEM and the EPFL spin-off ORYL Photonics win first prize at the 2026 EARTO Innovation Awards
Share this article
On 10 June 2026, CSEM received the EARTO Innovation Award in the “Impact Expected” category for the development of a promising testing method for the evaluation of future medicines. This process, developed in collaboration with ORYL Photonics, is not only faster and less expensive, but also more sustainable than current techniques.
New medicines must reach patients as quickly as possible. Solubility testing is a key prerequisite for this. It verifies that the active ingredients dissolve properly in liquids. As the conventional procedure is time-consuming and resource-intensive, this stage constitutes a major bottleneck from the earliest stages of pharmaceutical research.
In collaboration with Swiss Health Valley🇨🇭 EPFL spin-out ORYL Photonics, CSEM has developed an industrial prototype for high-throughput solubility testing, bridging the gap between laboratory research and industrial application, and leading to a reliable, cost-effective and scalable solution. The independent jury of the EARTO Innovation Awards 2026 awarded this project first prize in the ‘Impact Expected’ category. This award recognises innovations with high potential for future impact. The awards ceremony took place on 10 June as part of the EARTO Annual Conference 2026 in Brussels.
“We are delighted that our collaboration with ORYL Photonics has received such recognition,” said Stefano Cattaneo, Group Leader of Optoelectronic Systems at CSEM. “This illustrates how innovative measurement concepts can be transferred from research to concrete industrial solutions for the pharmaceutical industry.”
Light instead of a complex separation process
In conventional solubility tests, the active substance is dissolved in a liquid and forced under high pressure through long capillary tubes to separate and analyse its components. This high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is not only very time-consuming, but also uses up a great deal of valuable test material, at a time when every milligram of the new active ingredient counts and is needed for further analyses. Added to this is the significant consumption of chemical solvents that are not particularly environmentally friendly.
The innovative process developed by CSEM and ORYL Photonics eliminates all these drawbacks: solubility testing is carried out using light. To do this, a laser sends ultra-short light pulses through the liquid containing the active ingredient. When the active ingredient is completely dissolved, the laser pulse passes through the solution unimpeded. If not, scattering signals appear at the laser frequency and at higher frequencies and are detected by the system. The system is so sensitive that it detects undissolved substances, even at concentrations where this was difficult with conventional methods.
Fewer materials, fewer chemicals, less time wasted
The principle behind this measurement method was developed by EPFL and ORYL Photonics. In collaboration with CSEM, this process has been transformed into a working prototype. To achieve this, the CSEM team drew on its expertise in the fields of optics, electronics, systems design and automation.
The prototype enables hundreds of samples in 384-well microtiter plates to be analysed simultaneously in just 15 minutes, with a high degree of reliability. Furthermore, compared to the method used previously, it has the added advantage of requiring around a hundred times less active substance on the one hand, and far fewer chemical solvents on the other. Orly Tarun, founder and CEO of ORYL Photonics, estimates that a global launch could save up to 70 million litres of solvents and 4.7 TWh of electricity – equivalent to around 8% of Switzerland’s annual energy consumption. “This process makes solubility testing not only 100 times faster, but also around 10 times cheaper,” explains Orly Tarun. This could help reduce research and development costs in the pharmaceutical industry.
The method is applicable to a wide range of classes of active ingredients and conditions, and can also be extended to high-throughput screening. As a result, pharmaceutical research will be able to identify potentially promising active substances at an earlier stage, reduce development risks and speed up the availability of medicines.
In 2021, CSEM was awarded an EARTO Innovation Award for its collaboration with the start-up CUTISS, which produces customised skin grafts using biotechnology for people with severe burns. With these two accolades, CSEM has demonstrated in a remarkable way that it is capable of successfully translating laboratory innovations into real-world applications and thus enabling their industrial deployment.
➡️ Source: CSEM Press Release | © EARTO – On 10 June 2026, CSEM and ORYL Photonics received the EARTO Innovation Award in the ‘Impact Expected’ category for a new drug-specific testing method.