Via the formal representation of the Netherlands in Taiwan, HollandBIO can offer free booth spaces for Dutch companies at BIO Asia-Taiwan upcoming July. The 2019 BIO Asia-Taiwan will bring together biotechnology and pharmaceutical executives and investors from North America, Europe and Asia to meet and explore business opportunities with Taiwan’s emerging biotech sector. One of the largest gatherings of its kind in Asia, the BIO Asia-Taiwan is expected to attract more than 1,500 attendees from 25+ countries representing biomedical, pharmaceutical, genomics, biotech services, equipment and instruments, academic research, cosmetology products and bio-based healthcare. The five-day event from July 24-28 in Taipei will feature rich programming, company presentations from Asia and around the world, BIO One-on-One Partnering™ meetings, seminars and workshops, and an exhibition featuring more than 1,700 booths from 600+ companies.
On behalf of the formal representation of the government of The Netherlands in Taiwan, HollandBIO is delighted to provide some free booth spaces for Dutch companies. If you are interested in joining, please contact HollandBIO team via bs@hollandbio.nl for more information.
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In tegenstelling tot eerdere berichtgeving, is er nog voldoende budget beschikbaar voor zowel technische als klinische ontwikkelingsprojecten binnen het Innovatiekrediet. Werk je aan de technische ontwikkeling van een nieuw product of met de klinische ontwikkeling van een medicijn of apparaat? Dan is het nog mogelijk om te profiteren van het Innovatiekrediet. Het Innovatiekrediet is bedoeld voor de ontwikkeling van veelbelovende en uitdagende innovaties met een uitstekend marktperspectief.
De Groningse professor Frijlink ontvangt dankzij royalties op poederinhalatoren tientallen miljoenen voor nieuw onderzoek. Doordat de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen een deal sloot met twee farmaceuten, nemen de pufjes bovendien een hoge vlucht. De opbrengst gaat voor een kwart naar het octrooifonds van de universiteit, een kwart naar de faculteit, een deel gaat naar de uitvinders zelf. Het overgebleven deel kunnen de onderzoekers onder leiding van Frijlink zelf inzetten voor nieuwe onderzoeken. Het is daarmee een schoolvoorbeeld voor valorisatie. Patiënten wereldwijd krijgen toegang tot vindingen van een Nederlandse universiteit. En zowel de kennisinstelling, de onderzoeksgroep als de uitvinder profiteert mee.
Het hele artikel over ‘Pufjes-prof uit Groningen’ lees je in het Dagblad van het Noorden (inlog verplicht).
Mymetics, a pioneer and leader in the research and development of
virosome-based vaccines against life threatening and life disabling diseases,
announced today that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Mymetics
and Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) a five-year grant for
the project called “Cold Chain-independent, Needle-free Mucosal Virosomal
Vaccine to Prevent HIV-1 Acquisition at Mucosal Levels”.
The project has the objective to prepare Mymetics’ promising HIV-1 vaccine candidate for clinical trials. The vaccine candidate is based upon Mymetics’ virosomes, enveloped virus-like particles that display on their surface rationally designed HIV-1 antigens. The vaccine is created to induce protective mucosal antibodies acting as a frontline defense against sexual HIV transmission.
An earlier formulation of the vaccine candidate has shown safety and immunogenicity in a Phase I clinical trial in healthy women. Two independent non-human primate studies demonstrated the safety and high efficacy of the virosome-based vaccine in Chinese and Indian-origin rhesus macaques against repeated low-dose intravaginal challenges with a monkey AIDS virus, a so-called tier 2 R5 SHIV that shares key biological features with human transmitted forms of HIV-1. Mymetics recently finished a European Horizon 2020 funded project where Mymetics developed adjuvanted new solid powder forms of the vaccine which can be directly administered to mucosal tissues (nose, sublingual or oral) without needles and that do not depend on refrigeration, which makes the new vaccine attractive for the developing world where AIDS is at epidemic levels.
“We are excited to collaborate with Mymetics and our partners on a promising AIDS vaccine candidate that seeks to induce protective immune defenses at mucosal barriers – where HIV-1 first enters the body during sexual transmission of HIV-1. The new joint project complements our basic research, where we demonstrated potent protection with mucosal antibodies administered to rhesus macaques” said Professor and Director of the Texas Biomed AIDS Program, Dr. Ruth Ruprecht, who serves as Principal Investigator together with Dr. Sylvain Fleury, CSO of Mymetics Corporation.
“We are extremely grateful for the trust and support from the NIH for our project, it will enable the continued progress of our cold chain, independent virosome based HIV vaccine candidate” Ronald Kempers, CEO of Mymetics, stated. “We will be able to prepare it for clinical trials in collaboration with world leading HIV scientists from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and our longstanding partner Texas Biomed.
The project will start on May 1, 2019 and is planned for five years. It is co-led by Drs. Ruprecht and Fleury and includes subawards to Dr. François Villinger of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Dr. Sarah Ratcliffe of the University of Virginia. First results are expected to be reported in 2020.
Cytura
Therapeutics has successfully closed a Seed financing round. The funding is
provided by a syndicate led by Thuja Capital
Healthcare (Seed) Fund II and includes BOM Brabant Ventures, the Centre
for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3) – KU Leuven and the Gemma Frisius Fund.
Cytura Therapeutics will use the new funding to advance its first proprietary
small molecule program and to further expand their pipeline of new disruptive
drugs, targeting genomic instability.
The company
will be based at the Pivot Park Life Science Campus in Oss and collaborate with
the Amsterdam UMC and the Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3) of the KU
Leuven. Genomic instability is a major problem in cancer progression and
therapy resistance. By targeting genome instability this approach could be
applied both as a stand-alone as in combinations therapy. On the latter, there
is a large group of patients who will at first respond to the applied therapy
and later on become resistant during treatment.
Ad van
Gorp, co-founder of Cytura Therapeutics comments: “One of the biggest issues in cancer treatment is that the disease has
the ability to change its nature over time caused by the increasing genomic
instability. Cytura’s R&D efforts are focused on the development of small
molecules that will slow down or stop this genomic instability. I am committed
to find this medicine which could lead to real advancements in the fight
against cancer.”
Management
and shareholders
Cytura Therapeutics is founded by Dr Ad van Gorp, former CEO of Dutch Lead Pharma, the Centre for Drug Design and Discovery (CD3) of the KU Leuven and Amsterdam UMC. In close collaboration with both organizations, Cytura Therapeutics aspires to advance it innovative first-in-class therapies targeting genomic instability of cancers.
BIO
International Convention (BIO) comes to Philadelphia, June 3 – 6 2019, to
celebrate history-making innovation. Meet the world’s biotech and pharma
community via Partnering, choose from over 150 education sessions to upgrade
your knowledge and network with 16,000+ attendees from 76 countries. BIO covers
a range of life science and application areas, including drug discovery,
biomanufacturing, genomics, biofuels, nanotechnology and cell therapy.
From
Tuesday June 4 to Thursday June 6, HollandBIO will host the Health~Holland
Pavilion at the exhibition floor, Booth #509. Feel free to drop by, and, mark
your calendar: you’ll find the exhibition floor’s best-visited happy hour at
the Health-Holland Pavilion, Tuesday June 4 5.30 PM. True to tradition, we will
raffle a Loyens & Loeff bike!
Tips to make the most out of your Philly trip
On top of
the ‘regular’ conference program, BIO offers exciting possibilities to make the
most out of your Philadelphia trip.
Executive Training Programs
Days in advance of BIO, several executive training programs take place. The program supports the activities that takes place at the partnering, investor and venture capital conferences. Each course is taught by experienced business development professionals from leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, and experts from the fields of law and public relations. Clickherefor more information.
Biotech Ecosystem Tours
Explore the vibrant ecosystem of top universities, academic medical centers, and research institutes in the tri-state area of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. When organizing your trip to BIO International Convention, plan to attend one of the site, lab, and incubator tours arranged by BIO and the local biotech community. Learn more about the tours here
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Steeds vaker zet de overheid revolverende fondsen in om
marktfalen aan te pakken. De Algemene Rekenkamer onderzocht 24 fondsen met een
omvang van ruim € 3,6 miljard. De fondsen richten zich op projecten met een
maatschappelijk doel. Doordat de opbrengsten terugvloeien naar het fonds, kan
het geld meerdere keren worden ingezet. Bovendien hebben de fondsen vaak een
katalyserende werking, waardoor de overheidsbijdrage de inzet van privaat geld
stimuleert. Daarmee is het een perfect instrument om innovatie aan te jagen,
ook – of misschien wel juist – in de life sciences. HollandBIO kijkt dan ook
uit naar de mogelijkheden die de oprichting voor Invest-NL hierin kan bieden.
Een revolverend fonds is een financieel beleidsinstrument waarbij
leningen of deelnemingen 1 maal kunnen worden uitgezet. Uitgangspunt is dat ten
minste een gedeelte van de middelen moet terugvloeien zodat deze opnieuw
uitgezet kunnen worden. Het uiteindelijke doel is om een maatschappelijke
meerwaarde te bewerkstelligen die zonder het instrument zou zijn uitgebleven.
Ook de life sciences profiteert van dergelijke fondsen, zoals het
Innovatiekrediet en de Seed capital regeling.
Invest-NL
De fondsen zijn bedoeld om langjarig te investeren. De inbreng
van overheidsgeld versterkt het vertrouwen van marktpartijen en verlaagt het
risico, waardoor eenvoudiger privaat geld kan worden aangetrokken. Ondanks het
groeiende aantal fondsen, bestaat er geen specifieke regelgeving. In 2017
bedroeg de rijksbijdrage ruim € 3,6 miljard. Met de oprichting van Invest-NL
komt daar de komende jaren nog eens € 2,5 miljard bij.
Gaten in
financieringslandschap
Invest-NL gaat zich richten op de financiering van start-ups
en scale-ups. De overheid krijgt hiermee een instrument in handen om marktfalen
in maatschappelijke uitdagingen zoals gezondheid en zorg en
sleuteltechnologieën als biotechnologie aan te pakken. Deze aansluiting van
Invest-NL bij het missiegedreven innovatiebeleid van de overheid kwam recent al
naar voren. Binnenkort debatteert de Tweede Kamer over Invest-NL. HollandBIO is
blij dat de oprichting een stap dichterbij komt en ziet het als een mooie kans
om de gaten in het financieringslandschap voor life sciences te overbruggen.
Naar aanleiding van de recent aangekondigde samenwerking met Crown Bioscience, schittert het Hubrecht Organoid Technology (HUB) in het FD. Het Utrechtse onderzoeksinstituut en het internationale biotechbedrijf bundelen de krachten om ontwikkeling van HUBs organoïde technologie te versnellen. Het Hubrecht Laboratorium ontdekte een technologie om stamcellen van patiënten op te kweken tot mini-orgaantjes. “In feite hebben we een patiënt in een petrischaaltje”, aldus HUB directeur Rob Vries in het FD. De mini-orgaantjes, of organoids, kunnen een revolutie ontketenen in ontwikkeling van geneesmiddelen en in de inzet van geneesmiddelen in de kliniek. Een fantastische mogelijkheid om de route van lab naar patiënt te versnellen en te verbeteren.
De overeenkomst tussen Crown Bioscience en HUB geeft niet
alleen de ontwikkeling en validatie van technologie een impuls, maar ook aan de
Nederlandse life sciences sector: Crown Bioscience concentreert als onderdeel
van de samenwerking zijn Europese activiteiten in Utrecht.
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As of April 15, 2019, Qurin Diagnostics and Lionix International have acquired Surfix. As a supplier
of custom-made nanocoatings, the capabilities of Surfix are highly
complementary to the products and services offered by Qurin and LioniX
International. The companies are already working together closely on early
cancer detection and have realized a sensitive biochip, bringing together their
respective complementary technologies for this purpose. This acquisition
strengthens their relationship and mutual commitment towards bringing this
technology to the global biomedical market.
Molecular
(“DNA”) diagnostics hold great promise for early diagnosis and personalized
medicine and has clear clinical added value. Nevertheless, market penetration
falls short of expectations, as the costs of current diagnostic platforms are
too high. Currently available diagnostic platforms based on Polymerase Chain
Reaction and Next Generation Sequencing are very expensive, time consuming, and
require extensive infrastructure and highly skilled personnel. A breakthrough
is needed for the desired mass implementation of molecular diagnostics to
revolutionize medicine.
Qurin has
the goal to realize a diagnostic test platform that will overcome these
limitations for the early detection and monitoring of cancer, using urine as a
liquid biopsy. This platform uses the biophotonic sensor technology developed by
Lionix International and the nanocoatings of Surfix. With this acquisition, Qurin
and LioniX International strengthen their technology position by adding
Surfix’s biofunctionalization technology to their portfolio.
‘With Qurin and Lionix International, Surfix gets strong strategic partners to collaboratively achieve our goals and enable further growth and development of the company’, said Luc Scheres, CEO of Surfix. ‘This acquisition fits with our technical and commercial strategy, since it strengthens our focus and accelerates the development and commercialization of our nanocoating technologies.’
According to Qurin’s CEO Coenraad K. van Kalken, MD, PhD, Surfix’s advanced nanocoating technology, almost literally represent the necessary chemical “glue” between the globally recognized nanophysics technology of Lionix and oncological diagnostic expertise of Qurin. An effective and stimulating collaboration has been established with Dutch industrial and academic partners leading this international field, enjoying increasing recognition and support.
‘This acquisition further strengthens the position of LioniX International as a vertical integrated supplier in the bio-photonic sensing market, since the technology of Surfix also enables the offering of surface functionalization for biological applications in the modules we develop for our customers, the novel biochip is broadly applicable in Medical and other global fields requiring low-threshold sensitive biodiagnostics’, said Hans van den Vlekkert, CEO of LioniX International.
Kiadis
Pharma has entered a definitive agreement to acquire US-based CytoSen
Therapeutics, subject to Kiadis’ shareholder approval and customary closing
conditions.
Privately
held CytoSen has developed a proprietary natural killer (NK)-cell platform to
enable NK-cell therapy with broad anti-cancer potential. It was founded on
technology exclusively licensed from the University of Central Florida (UCF)
and further developed at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH). The company’s
founders, including Dean Lee, Stefan Ciurea and Robert Igarashi, are leading
physicians and scientists at NCH, MDACC and UCF, respectively. Following the
transaction, Dr. Carl June, a pioneer in the development of CAR T-cell therapy
and current scientific advisor to CytoSen, will join Kiadis’ Scientific
Advisory Board.
The
transaction creates a leader in cell-based cancer immunotherapy. The combined
company has a complementary development pipeline focused on improving outcomes
for patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT). Kiadis’
lead T-cell product ATIR101 is in EU registration and a global Phase 3 clinical
trial; CytoSen’s lead NK-cell product
candidate, CSDT002-NK, building on promising clinical proof-of-concept studies
in 25 patients carried out at MD Anderson Cancer Center, is expected to enter
the clinic in the US in 2020. The unique combination of proprietary and
synergistic NK-cell and T-cell therapy platforms has the potential to
revolutionize HSCT and enables Kiadis to create a pipeline with novel cancer
treatments.
Arthur
Lahr, CEO of Kiadis commented: “Our
vision is to leverage the strengths of the human immune system to help patients
with life-threatening diseases. With the addition of CytoSen, we can create
cell therapy treatments that combine the innate and adaptive arms of the immune
system. The ATIR T-cell and CSDT002-NK-cell programs each have the potential to
make transplants safer and more effective. In combination, they have the
potential to revolutionize HSCT, making it suitable for an even wider group of
patients. This transaction will transform Kiadis into a unique company with two
synergistic proprietary cell-based immunotherapy platforms and the opportunity
to create a pipeline of innovative treatments for cancer patients.”
Carl H.
June, MD, Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, commented:
“NK-cell therapy could significantly
advance the field of immuno-oncology. Also, I believe the fields of NK-cells
and T-cells are enormously synergistic and the combination could potentially
help patients with devastating diseases. I am pleased to be joining the
Scientific Advisory Board of Kiadis.”
Dean A.
Lee, MD, PhD, co-founder of CytoSen and director of the Cellular Therapy and
Cancer Immunology Program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH), commented:
“CytoSen has the most advanced
NK-cell technology to enable NK-cell therapy with broad anti-cancer potential.
The strong experience, infrastructure, and competencies of Kiadis in cell
therapy will accelerate our delivery of NK-cells to patients, and the new
opportunities for exploring NK-cell and T-cell synergies will enable disruptive
innovation in the cell therapy space. I am excited to collaborate with Kiadis
to bring this innovation to patients.”
NK-cells
are one of the body’s first lines of immunological defense with an innate
ability to rapidly and selectively destroy abnormal cells, such as cancer or
virally-infected cells. Advancing research into the biology of NK-cells, as
well as emerging early-stage clinical evidence, has increasingly shown that
NK-cell immunotherapy has the potential to be at the forefront of cancer
immunotherapy. CytoSen’s patented nanoparticle processing technology enables
improved ex vivo expansion and activation of NK-cells supporting multiple high
dose infusions with potent anti-cancer cytotoxicity.
CytoSen’s lead program, CSTD002-NK in HSCT, is built on proof-of-concept studies in 25 patients carried out at MDACC. First results of these studies demonstrated a relapse rate of 8% and progression-free survival (PFS) of 66% (published in Blood[1], with follow up data presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in 2018). The upcoming clinical study with CSDT002-NK, expected to start in 2020, has been designed with and will be supported by the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN). The study will enroll high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients undergoing a haploidentical HSCT at a consortium of leading US transplant centers in the BMT CTN network. Additionally, CytoSen’s NK-cell therapy will be investigated for other cancer treatments based on an 8-patient proof-of-concept study conducted at MDACC in refractory AML.