Staatssecretaris Keijzer (EZK): “Nederlandse bedrijven hebben in 2017 hun uitgaven voor onderzoek en ontwikkeling op peil gehouden. Dat is belangrijk, omdat de sterke economische groei er voor zorgt dat bedrijven zich vooral moeten richten op de toenemende vraag en productie. Het overgrote aandeel mkb’ers in deze groep laat zien dat zij niet alleen het fundament van onze economie zijn, maar ook een belangrijke bijdrage leveren aan vernieuwing in vele sectoren als de bouw, de verpakkingsindustrie of data-toepassingen. Onderzoek en ontwikkeling blijft de basis  voor onze internationale concurrentiepositie.”

2017 in cijfers

Via de WBSO kunnen bedrijven een deel van de loonkosten en andere uitgaven voor onderzoek en ontwikkeling verlagen. In 2017 kende de Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, die de WBSO namens het ministerie van EZK uitvoert, in totaal 135.900 projecten toe. Dit aantal projecten staat gelijk aan circa 83.000 hoogwaardige arbeidsplaatsen in de Research & Development. Bij deze projecten was verreweg het grootste deel (96%) een ontwikkelingstraject voor een nieuw product, productieproces of programmatuur, in 4% van de projecten ging het om een technisch-wetenschappelijk onderzoek.

De cijfers over afgelopen jaar laten zien dat Amsterdam (met 1.923 bedrijven), de omgeving Eindhoven (1.726 bedrijven) en Utrecht (1.534 bedrijven) het meest gebruik maken van de regeling. In de provincies Noord-Brabant, Zuid-Holland en Noord-Holland geven bedrijven het meeste uit aan R&D.

Betere oogst en slimme hijskraan

Eén van de bedrijven die succesvol gebruik maakt van de innovatieregeling is Dacom, dat via data-apparatuur telers helpt hun gewassen te optimaliseren. Door sensoren te combineren met satellietbeelden en internetapplicaties wordt het gebruik van water, bestrijdingsmiddelen en meststoffen beter op elkaar afgestemd. Zo wordt de oogst verbeterd, het gebruik van de hoeveelheid hulpstoffen verminderd en duurzaamheid gestimuleerd. Met de recente WBSO-bijdrage onderzoekt het bedrijf nu het gebruik van deze technologie op de lange afstand.

Lagerwey bedacht met hulp van de WBSO een hijskraan die meeklimt in de opbouw van windmolens. Omdat de masthoogte van deze turbines steeds verder toeneemt moeten kranen ook steeds hoger worden. Doordat de nieuwe hijskraan zichzelf vasthoudt en zodoende niet veel ruimte nodig heeft kan zo op meer plekken makkelijker gebouwd worden. Daarbij blijft de ondergrond beschikbaar voor bijvoorbeeld akkerbouw. Die combinatie zorgt voor tijd- en milieuwinst en lagere kosten.

Bron: Rijksoverheid

The European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine (EATRIS) has formed a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to deliver a clinical and scientific expert network for the development and application of innovative imaging methods for inflammatory diseases.

While existing clinical imaging tools provide useful endpoints in clinical trials, they typically lack sufficient cellular and molecular information to fully understand drug response. Imaging has the potential to interrogate inflammatory cell populations, quantitatively in different tissues. This alliance aims to unlock this potential by delivering new clinical tools. Applying imaging in information-rich, small cohort studies can provide a high, immediate impact to enhance R&D productivity: developing our understanding of disease in the patient; enriching clinical trial cohorts; measuring therapeutic response.

The imaging hub aims to achieve these goals by (1) optimising existing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) technology for drug development; and (2) translating emerging PET and optical cell-specific probes towards the clinic. The first three projects with a focus around immune cell specific imaging have now been initiated.

The initiative creates a scientific bridge between GSK’s clinical imaging scientists and five leading European imaging and experimental medicine research institutes within the EATRIS network: Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen, University Medical Center Groningen, VU University Medical Center Amsterdam from the Netherlands, and Uppsala University and Uppsala University Hospital from Sweden. To enable experts in the alliance to fully focus on the scientific and technical challenges, EATRIS acts as portfolio manager, playing a key role in developing and administering the legal framework and operations, for optimal speed and efficiency. EATRIS will facilitate initiation of both independent and collaborative transnational projects under a master framework, with up-front auditing and quality agreements.

Anton Ussi, operations and finance director of EATRIS comments; “In Europe, EATRIS is in a unique position to construct bespoke international research collaborations from concept to execution of contracts. We are very excited about this novel collaboration format, combining GSK’s wealth of knowledge around drug development with the clinical and technical expertise from EATRIS institutions having highly specialised molecular imaging and experimental medicine capacity, all supported with dedicated coordination staff within the EATRIS central support office.”

BiosparQ, has secured 3.4 million EUR in financing from the Dutch government. This funding comes in the form of an innovation credit, a loan from the government for innovation projects. BiosparQ. will be using this funding to accelerate the development, validation and certification of the DigiTOF platform for to the clinical market.

DigiTOF

BiosparQ is based in Leiden and develops DigiTOF, an in vitro diagnostics solution for rapid diagnostics. DigiTOF is based on MALDI-TOF Mass spectrometry applied on single bacteria isolated directly from patient material. Ease of use, turnaround time of less than 20 minutes and a low cost per test will ensure a large variety of applications. “From the start we knew that the DigiTOF has the potential to bridge the gap in clinical diagnostics between patient and treatment. Now that we have obtained the support from the Dutch government and the positive feedback from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), we are certain that DigiTOF is the way forward. We would like to thank everyone that made it possible for BiosparQ to grow and develop into the company it is today and we look forward to working with you to realize the potential that is the DigiTOF” Gerold de Valk, CEO.

Source: BiosparQ

GlycoMScan has opened their company’s doors in the van Leeuwenhoek building’s basement. GlycoMScan offers services in mass spectrometry, from screening of small molecules to absolute quantification in complex biological matrices. “As the name suggests, I am specialized in analyses of glycosylation and the building blocks thereof, the nucleotide sugars and phosphorylated sugars from intracellular metabolism,” tells Monique van Scherpenzeel, GlycoMScan’s CEO. ”I chose Pivot Park because of the inspiring atmosphere of (start-up) companies in pharma and life sciences, the good quality laboratory facilities and the opportunity for me and my company to serve your R&D with my services in mass spectrometry.”

“The fact that GlycoMScan is already developing several collaborations with community members shows what a good addition this company is to the Pivot Park pharma R&D ecosystem,” tells Brigitte Drees, Pivot Park’s CEO. “Thanks to our extensive experience we’ve been able to support GlycoMScan in becoming operable in a short time.”

Glycomscan has three types of mass spectrometers in-house, offering short time-to-results. These are:

• Sensitive high-end UHPLC-QqQ for intracellular quantification of (sugar) metabolites
• High-throughput, large capacity MRM analyses for pharmacokinetics and quantification of small molecules in complex biological matrices
• Open access HPLC-MS for small molecule analyses.

High-resolution or other types of mass spectrometry, e.g. QTOF or GC-MS are available upon request. Interested in learning more? Contact Monique van Scherpenzeel by e-mail.

Source: Pivot Park

As an association that has manufacturers of both originator and biosimilar medicines as members, EuropaBio strongly doubts that the promises of today’s Commission proposal outweigh the risks of losing investment in new medicines. “Today’s proposal can only weaken the attractiveness of the EU as a hub for biopharmaceutical innovation. The approach of taking incentives away from one part of the biopharmaceutical industry to give to another part of the same industry is the wrong way to serve patients and foster innovation in Europe. Instead, solutions for enabling the entire EU biopharma industry to meet the needs of EU patients should have been explored.”, commented John Brennan, Secretary General of EuropaBio, on the European Commission’s proposal for a waiver of the rights of holders of Supplementary Protection Certificates for innovative medicines.

Costly and highly uncertain investment decisions into R&D in health can only be taken in the presence of carefully balanced, reliable and enforceable incentives and safeguards against failure and long-term lack of profitability. “European developers of tomorrow’s cures are mainly small businesses. In today’s world, where these small biotech businesses depend on investor funding from outside Europe, this proposal sends the wrong signal and jeopardises progress and innovation in health – where are the safeguards to make sure that does not happen?”, added Mr. Brennan.

EuropaBio’s early analysis of the proposal finds that rather than promoting growth and jobs in the entire sector, an SPC waiver would simply shift value and jobs from the originator part of the biopharmaceutical industry to the biosimilar and generic part of the same EU health industry with the only result being a negative net impact on innovation for patients. The proposal also seems absent of robust safeguards in this regard. EuropaBio stands ready to contribute expertise and experience for alleviating the foreseeable damage to the finely balanced EU biopharma innovation ecosystem.

Source: EuropaBIO