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AMGEN BV WINT SPECIALE AWARD ‘ZORGEN’ EN BEHOORT TOT BESTE WERKGEVERS 2019

Amgen BV behoort voor het derde jaar op rij tot de beste werkgevers van Nederland. Het biotechnologie bedrijf scoorde de vierde plek op de lijst van Best Workplaces 2019 en ontving daarnaast de speciale award voor het beste bedrijf op het thema ‘Zorgen’. General Manager Marika Murto nam gisteren tijdens een feestelijke bijeenkomst in Amsterdam de awards in ontvangst van René Brouwers, directeur van Great Place to Work® Nederland.

“Vanzelfsprekend ben ik trots op deze prestatie, vooral omdat het gebaseerd is op de feedback van het Amgen-team zelf.” “Tegelijkertijd kwam het niet als een verrassing”, vervolgt Marika Murto,”gezien de positieve sfeer op de werkvloer. Elke dag werken we vol overgave samen om patiënten te helpen met de juiste behandeling op het juiste moment. Daarnaast is het natuurlijk fantastisch dat we de ‘Zorgen’ award hebben gewonnen. We vinden een gezonde werk-privé balans van cruciaal belang binnen onze organisatie en dat draagt zeker bij aan succes op de werkvloer.”

De lijst van werkgevers is samengesteld op basis van empirisch onderzoek van Great Place to Work® Nederland. Jaarlijks worden de hoogst scorende organisaties onderscheiden als Best Workplaces van Nederland. Directeur René Brouwers: “Een Great Place to Work is een organisatie waar doelen worden behaald, waar mensen het beste uit zichzelf halen en samenwerken in een omgeving van vertrouwen. De organisaties die op de lijst van Best Workplaces staan vervullen een voorbeeldfunctie ten aanzien van andere organisaties.”

De ‘Zorgen’ award

Het thema ‘Zorgen’ gaat over de wijze waarop een onderneming goede ondersteuning geeft in het vinden van de balans tussen werk en privé en de aandacht die er is voor vitaliteit. Amgen ziet het als haar taak om optimale zorg voor patiënten te bieden en als werkgever wil Amgen dat ook voor haar eigen medewerkers, want velen van ons zijn ook moeder, vader en mantelzorger. Amgen heeft daarom een programma voor flexibel werken, vergadervrije vrijdagmiddagen en is erkend als een mantelzorgvriendelijk bedrijf. Amgen wil de ‘best place for talent’ zijn. Gecertificeerd worden als een Great Place to Work® draagt daaraan bij en het onderzoek levert inzichten hoe de organisatie zich kan verbeteren, zodat met nog meer vertrouwen, trots en plezier gewerkt kan worden

Bron: Amgen

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Synerkine Pharma Raises €3.3 M in Series A Financing

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Synerkine Pharma has successfully closed a EUR 3.3 million Series A financing from Thuja Capital, an undisclosed private investor, and the company’s founders. Synerkine Pharma focuses on developing novel fusion proteins for the treatment of chronic pain. The company is a spin off from University Medical Center Utrecht and was founded in 2018

Hans Preusting, co-founder and CEO of Synerkine Pharma, said: “We are delighted with the closing of the Series A financing. The proceeds will allow us to deliver a preclinical proof of concept in steoarthritis and neuropathic pain over the next two years. Our lead compound licensed from the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU), a fusion protein of IL4 and IL10, has been shown to significantly reduce chronic pain in multiple pre-clinical models. The therapeutic potential of fusion proteins that mimic endogenous immune molecules and are devoid of the typical analgesic side-effects is substantial in a broad range of pain indications.”

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ZonMw programma Meer kennis met Minder Dieren zoekt uitdagingen!

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Loopt jouw organisatie tegen uitdagingen aan in de ontwikkeling of toepassing van diervrije innovaties? Reageer dan voor 23 april op de Create2Solve-oproep van het ZonMw programma Meer Kennis met Minder Dieren. Dien je “Challenge” in en wie weet broeden onderzoeksinstellingen en MKB straks op jouw innovatieve, diervrije oplossing. Meer informatie over deze oproep, de selectiecriteria en randvoorwaarden vind je hier. 

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InteRNA Appoints Andrea van Elsas, Ph.D. to Scientific Advisory Board

InteRNA Technologies has appointed Andrea van Elsas, Ph.D., as a new member of the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). Dr. van Elsas is an immuno-oncology expert with over 20 years of experience in advancing highly innovative oncology assets and currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer of Aduro Biotech. In his role on the SAB, Dr. van Elsas will support InteRNA’s pipeline development efforts and in particular the positioning and strategy for lead program INT-1B3 advancing into clinical development. Dr. van Elsas will succeed Allan Balmain, Ph.D., F.R.S., who has stepped down from his position on the board.

“Andrea has always worked at the heart of cancer therapy drug discovery efforts and his outstanding track record in identifying and developing innovative therapeutics will be a great benefit to us,” said Dr. Roel Schaapveld, CEO of InteRNA. “With his added oversight, we aim to further advance GLP toxicology studies and move towards the clinical evaluation of our promising lead candidate, INT-1B3, in the immuno-oncology field. We also would like to thank Allan for sharing his knowledge and providing significant contributions to our R&D programs over the years.”

“InteRNA has developed a uniquely positioned RNA therapy attacking cancer from multiple angles, with the potential of inducing durable immunity as a single agent and in combination therapy,” said Dr. van Elsas. “I am impressed by the team’s profound work on defining the mode-of-action and selecting an optimized delivery technology for INT-1B3 and am thrilled to contribute to the advancement of this novel therapeutic strategy.”

Prior to his position asCSO of Aduro Biotech,Dr. van Elsas was CSO of Aduro Biotech Europe from 2015 to 2017. He joined Aduro following the 2015 acquisition of BioNovion, a company he co-founded and served as CSO, that was focused on the development of innovative therapeutic antibodies in the field of immuno-oncology. In addition, Dr. van Elsas supports Gilde Healthcare as an Operational Partner in the evaluation of investment opportunities and has been acting as VP of Research for Gilde’s portfolio company, AM Pharma, since 2011. From 1999 to 2011, he held various positions of increasing responsibilities at Organon (acquired by Schering-Plough Corporation and later by Merck) in Oss, The Netherlands, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. As Organon’s Director of Tumor Immunology he oversaw the immuno-oncology portfolio and led the anti-PD1 program that later became known as pembrolizumab. As a post-doc he worked in the lab of Nobel Laureate Jim Allison at the University of California, Berkeley and is a co-inventor on the original anti-CTLA4 patents that formed the basis for the development of ipilimumab (YervoyTM), the first checkpoint inhibitor approved for the treatment of melanoma. Dr. van Elsas holds a Ph.D. in Immunology and Oncology from the University of Leiden.

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Carmen van Vilsteren is het nieuwe gezicht van de Topsector Life Sciences & Health

Carmen van Vilsteren is per 1 april 2019 het nieuwe boegbeeld van de Topsector Life Sciences & Health. Met deze benoeming tot voorzitter van het Topteam Life Sciences & Health door Staatssecretaris van Economische Zaken en Klimaat Mona Keijzer neemt Van Vilsteren het stokje over van waarnemend boegbeeld Hans Schikan. Haar ruime kennis en ervaring binnen de wetenschap en het bedrijfsleven, gecombineerd met een ondernemende geest, geven Van Vilsteren een uitstekend profiel om aan de slag te gaan als het gezicht van de Topsector.

Op het snijvlak van ondernemen en onderzoeken


Carmen van Vilsteren heeft haar sporen verdiend in de medische industrie, bij Philips en later als CEO en co-founder van o.a. Microsure. In haar huidige rol als directeur van het Strategic Area Health van de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) combineert zij haar kennis van het opzetten van innovatieprogramma’s en publiek-private samenwerkingen met het wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Daarnaast heeft Van Vilsteren een uitgebreid netwerk en bekleedt zij diverse bestuurlijke functies op nationale en regionale schaal (Brainport), waardoor zij kruisbestuiving tussen regio’s kan initiëren. Als voorzitter van het bestuur van EIT Health Benelux, doet ze dit ook op Europese schaal. De benoeming als boegbeeld is een waardevolle aanvulling op haar huidige functies. Van Vilsteren zal haar werkzaamheden bij de TU/e combineren met haar rol bij de Topsector.

Duurzame innovatieve oplossingen

Naast een enorme passie voor hightech innovaties in de gezondheidszorg wordt Van Vilsteren gedreven door kansen voor de eindgebruiker, de patiënt. “Het bieden van duurzame, innovatieve oplossingen in de gezondheidszorg en daarmee een invloed hebben op het leven van mensen”, zegt Van Vilsteren, “dat is mijn drijfveer. Het Nederlandse onderzoek en bedrijfsleven hebben een toonaangevende rol op het gebied van innovaties in de gezondheidszorg. Om de impact op de kwaliteit van leven van mensen wereldwijd te vergroten, zet ik mij graag in om deze positie verder te versterken en internationaal uit te bouwen.”

Het stokje overnemen

Na het overlijden van voormalig boegbeeld Jan Raaijmakers in oktober 2017, heeft de  ervaren biotech ondernemer Hans Schikan de positie met verve bekleed. Schikan toonde zich in zijn rol als waarnemend boegbeeld een gedreven voorvechter van innovatie in de Life Sciences & Health (LSH) sector. De LSH sector heeft mede dankzij Schikan een aantal grote successen weten neer te zetten. Allereerst zijn er nationale samenwerkingsverbanden gevormd op o.a. regeneratieve geneesmiddelen (RegMed XB) en hart- en vaatonderzoek (Dutch CardioVascular Alliance). Maar ook de komst van het Europees Geneesmiddelen Agentschap (EMA) resulteerde reeds in diverse vestigingen van (bio)farmaceutische bedrijven in Nederland.   

Innovatiekracht van de topsectoren


De Topsector LSH is één van de negen topsectoren waar het Nederlandse bedrijfsleven en de kennisinstellingen internationaal bijdragen aan de concurrerende positie van Nederland op de wereldmarkt. Of het nu gaat om geneesmiddelen, medische technologie, diagnostiek, vaccinaties, digitale zorgoplossingen of de infrastructuur van de gezondheidszorg; de Nederlandse LSH sector biedt innovatieve oplossingen en is wereldwijd steeds toonaangevender. 

Bron: Health~Holland

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ProPharma Group Acquires Southwood Research

ProPharma Group, a portfolio company of Linden Capital Partners, announces the acquisition of Southwood Research. Based in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom, Southwood Research is a leading provider of pre-approval regulatory science services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. “We are thrilled about our future as a part of ProPharma Group. The combination expands our global reach, as well as our ability to provide end-to-end services for our clients within regulatory affairs,” said Colin Wheeler, Southwood Research’s Managing Director.

This acquisition extends ProPharma Group’s highly specialized scientific regulatory affairs capabilities throughout the EU marketplace, while bolstering its regulatory affairs service portfolio from pre-clinical/pre-approval through post-approval. “Southwood Research’s proven experience is pivotal throughout the developmental phases of a product’s lifecycle and has made them an invaluable partner to their growing roster of pharmaceutical and biotech clients. We are excited to support the entire ProPharma Group organization as they expand their global presence and enhance their existing portfolio of services to better serve their customers,” said Michael Farah, Chairman of ProPharma and Partner at Linden Capital Partners.

ProPharma Group, a leading provider of compliance services, continues to expand its global presence, now with more than 1,100 employees across United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Australia. “The addition of Southwood Research’s deep scientific expertise emphasizes ProPharma Group’s commitment to providing industry leading regulatory support to our clients. ProPharma Group’s robust regulatory capabilities, bolstered by the recent additions of The Weinberg Group in the United States and now Southwood Research in the UK, represent a truly unique end-to-end global regulatory practice,” said Dawn Sherman, ProPharma Group’s CEO.

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Leestip: Verantwoord beleggen in farma

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Geen sector leent zich zo goed voor een verantwoorde belegging als onze eigen mooie life sciences & health sector. Dat vinden wij bij HollandBIO althans. Je maakt de ontwikkeling van de medicijnen van morgen mogelijk én realiseert een (hopelijk) mooi rendement voor de oude dag. Toch lijkt dat niet langer common sense onder verzekeraars en banken, al dan niet om het eigen imago op te poetsen. In een rake column in Medisch Contact gaat Henk Jan Out in op dit wonderlijke fenomeen. HollandBIO tipt: investeer in jezelf, lees dit artikel!

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ProQR Doses First Patient in Phase 1/2 STELLAR Trial of QR-421a for Usher Syndrome Type 2

ProQR Therapeutics, a company dedicated to changing lives through the creation of transformative RNA medicines for the treatment of severe genetic rare diseases, has dosed the first patient in the Phase 1/2 STELLAR clinical trial for QR-421a in patients with Usher syndrome type 2 or non-syndromic retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Interim data from the study are expected to be announced mid-2019.

“There are no effective treatments for most inherited retinal diseases, including Usher syndrome, and blindness often results,” said David G. Birch, Ph.D., Principal Investigator of STELLAR and ScientificDirector of the Retina Foundation of the Southwest in Dallas, Texas. “The STELLAR study is one of the first studies of its kind exploring the impact of ProQR’s RNA therapies on patients with Usher syndrome due to an Exon 13 mutation. The STELLAR trial will explore whether QR-421a (ProQR’s RNA therapy) can slow disease progression or even reverse it. Treatments such as this, that target the underlying cause of a disorder, have the potential to give new hope to patients and their families that life-changing therapies could be available in the near future.”

“Usher syndrome is a devastating disease, so we are pleased to advance QR-421a into the clinic with the goal to make a difference for these patients, similar to what we have observed with early but promising data for sepofarsen in patients with LCA10,” said Daniel A. de Boer, chief executive officer of ProQR. “We are committed to rapidly advancing our promising RNA therapies for inherited retinal diseases and we believe our platform of generating targeted RNA therapies with long retinal half-lives and the ability to reach both central and peripheral retina, we will be able to target many of these diseases in the coming years.”

Usher syndrome is the leading cause of combined deafness and blindness. Exon 13 mutations in the USH2A gene targeted by QR-421a cause vision loss in approximately 16,000 individuals in the Western world.

Source: ProQR

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Enpicom secures funding round to finalize igx platform development

Bioinformatics software engineering company ENPICOM has closed a series A investment round. BOM Brabant Ventures, Nextgen Ventures and Arches Capital have jointly invested 1.2 million euros to support the company’s repertoire sequencing data analysis platform. ENPICOM will use these proceeds to finalize development of its ImmunoGenomiX (IGX) platform and introduce it in the marketplace.

ENPICOM BV was founded in 2017 by Dr. Alvise Trevisan (CTO), Dr. Nicola Bonzanni (CSO) and Jos Lunenberg, MSc, MBA (CEO). Mid 2017 the company started the development of a unique platform to manage, store, analyze, visualize and interpret clone sequencing data from T and B cell receptor repertoires. ENPICOM is currently in the final stage of preparations for the global launch of the first full version of its ImmunoGenomiX (IGX) platform. This festive event will take place in Vienna at the 6th Immunotherapy of Cancer Conference (ITOC6) from April 11 to 13.

Dr. Bonzanni commented: “When studying immune system related diseases or developing drugs influencing this system, it is extremely important to be able to directly measure and closely monitor its status. Repertoire sequencing is a powerful way to analyze hundreds of thousands to millions of T or B cell receptors swiftly and in a cost-effective way.” “While there are different companies offering kits and service for this specific form of targeted sequencing, there is no commercial platform to manage the rapidly growing amounts of data generated in the lab in an intuitive, user-friendly way,” added Dr. Trevisan. He continued: “To get from data to powerful insights from this exciting technology, smart new analysis methods and rock-solid software were needed. We have built a team of experts, bringing together a wealth of knowledge and expertise in this field, to develop the IGX platform.”

“I am very pleased we have attracted this excellent syndicate of investors,” said CEO Lunenberg. “With the completion of this Series A financing, we are well funded to execute on our IGX development and market introduction programs.”

Quotes from the investors

Sjoerd van Gorp (BOM): “The ambitions of the ENPICOM team in the field of personalized immunotherapy fits perfectly with our investment goals. By providing innovative life sciences companies and healthcare providers with the tools to measure the status of the patients’ immune system we believe that ENPICOM can facilitate efficient drug development and ensure effective treatment for patients.”

Matthijs Blokhuis (NextGen Ventures): “The ambition of ENPICOM to personalize immunotherapy resonates extremely well with the objective of NextGen Ventures to provide meaningful results for patients and providers. An increased understanding of immune repertoire sequencing data significantly helps to improve outcomes in an efficient manner.”

Eric van der Maten (Arches Capital): “ENPICOM is a perfect example of what we look for in a portfolio company: a strong, highly skilled, motivated and dedicated team, that is showing the ability to combine innovative emerging technologies like data science, AI and medical science into an exhilarating and fast-growing Deep Tech company, eventually even with a real impact on society. We are very pleased to add ENPICOM to our investment portfolio”.

Source: ENPICOM

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Calypso Biotech BV Secures 20 Million EUR

Calypso Biotech, an emerging leader in the development of therapeutic antibodies for autoimmune diseases, closed a €20M Series A financing co-led by Gilde Healthcare and Inkef Capital. They are joined by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC), and the company’s founding investor M Ventures. Further, Calypso Biotech has become Resident Company at Johnson & Johnson Innovation JLABS at Beerse in Belgium (JLABS@BE). Arthur Franken from Gilde Healthcare will join Fiona MacLaughlin (Inkef Capital), Jeanne Bolger (JJDC) and Jasper Bos (M Ventures) on the Board of Directors.

The proceeds from this financing round will support the development of Calypso Biotech’s best-in class anti-Interleukin-15 (IL-15) antibody CALY-002 up to First-in-Patient studies in several autoimmune indications. IL-15 is an immune checkpoint cytokine that controls inflammation as well as multiple tissue-resident immune cells and recently attracted much attention in the immune-oncology space. Especially, IL-15 is being recognized as a key factor in the survival of tissue resident memory T cells, a population of immune cells involved in disease maintenance and recurrence.  Calypso Biotech scientists believe that targeting tissue resident memory T cells offers significant advantages over traditional cytokine interventional approaches and could provide for unprecedented disease-modifying effects.

Calypso Biotech has chosen to develop CALY-002 in Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) as well as in other undisclosed auto-immune indications. EoE is a severe and debilitating immune-related chronic disease of the esophagus that is the second leading cause of dysphagia (difficulty in swallowing) in adults. EoE has emerged as a frequent and significant cause of upper gastrointestinal morbidity particularly associated with important quality of life impairment and significant financial healthcare burden. CALY-002 has secured Orphan Drug Designation status from the European Medicines and Food & Drug Administration agencies for EoE.

“We believe the unique immunological insight and understanding  for the role of IL15 in disease brought by founders Alain Vicari and Yolande Chvatchko is now ready for translation into a therapy for patients with EoE, for whom limited therapies are available today, as well as in several large auto-immune indications” said Fiona MacLaughlin, Inkef Capital.

Calypso Biotech is also announcing major strengthening of its team. Bernard Coulie, current president and CEO of Pliant Therapeutics, will be appointed as independent Chairman of the Board. Together with Alexandre LeBeaut, Executive Vice-President and CSO of Ipsen and current independent Director of Calypso Biotech, they will contribute to develop its strategic vision and corporate success. Prof. Bart Lambrecht, from the VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research (Belgium), a leading translational immunology expert, will join Calypso Biotech Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Josephin-Beate Holz (ex Ablynx NV), Dr Greg Elson (ex Glenmark, Novimmune), Dr Susana Salgado (ex Novimmune), and Duc Tran (ex Prexton Therepeutics, Preglem, Pfizer) will join as medical, manufacturing, non-clinical development and strategic planning advisors, respectively.

“We appreciate the confidence placed in our team by a strong and well-balanced investor syndicate” said Alain Vicari, CEO and co-Founder of Calypso Biotech. “With the proceeds of the Series A and our newly recruited team of seasoned experts, we are now well positioned to advance CALY-002 towards value-creating near-term milestones”.

Source: Calypso Biotech

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