Noldus Information Technology kondigt de commerciële release aan van EntoLab™, een nieuw geautomatiseerd systeem voor geautomatiseerde high-throughput screening van insectengedrag, ontwikkeld in samenwerking met Wageningen University & Research. EntoLab zorgt voor een revolutie in de plantenveredeling door de geautomatiseerde identificatie van resistentie-eigenschappen van insecten en draagt zo bij aan een duurzamere landbouw.
Bladzuigende insecten, zoals trips, bladluizen en wittevlieg, kunnen door zowel directe schade als virusoverdracht verwoestende effecten hebben in de land- en tuinbouw. Traditioneel worden deze insectenplagen bestreden door herhaaldelijk spuiten van insecticiden. Het recente verbod op neonicotinoïden (neuroactieve insecticiden) in Europa en de Verenigde Staten, en de bezorgdheid over de schadelijke effecten van pesticiden in het algemeen, roepen dringend om alternatieven, vooral als biologische bestrijding te duur of niet effectief is. Het verlies aan opbrengst door plantenetende insecten kan sterk worden verminderd als gewassen zelf beter zijn uitgerust met afweermechanismen.
Veredelen op waardplantresistentie
Om deze reden staat het veredelen op waardplantresistentie tegen zuigende insecten de laatste jaren sterk in de belangstelling, aangezien het verreweg de meest economische en milieuvriendelijke oplossing voor telers is. Een cruciaal element in het veredelingsproces is de nauwkeurige schatting van het resistentieniveau van grote populaties kruisingen. Hiervoor zijn robuuste fenotyperingssystemen nodig die op een high-throughput manier nauwkeurig veel verschillende plantlijnen met insecten kunnen screenen. Conventionele fenotyperingsmethoden zijn gericht op kostbare, arbeidsintensieve en tijdrovende eindpuntmetingen die vaak slecht reproduceerbaar zijn.
EntoLab
EntoLab is de langverwachte oplossing die de beperkingen van conventionele screeningsmethoden overwint. EntoLab is ontwikkeld door Noldus Information Technology in samenwerking met het team van dr. Maarten Jongsma van de businessunit Bioscience van Wageningen Plant Research en gerenommeerde plantenveredelaars. Het is een nieuw geautomatiseerd systeem voor geautomatiseerde screening van planten op resistentie tegen zuigende insecten op basis van het volgen van hun gedrag. Het geïntegreerde hardware-/softwaresysteem omvat een verscheidenheid aan bladhouders met meerdere arena’s, speciale optica, een digitale videocamera met hoge resolutie, LED-verlichting en software voor videotracking, gegevensverwerking en statistische analyse. EntoLab is gevalideerd voor verschillende soorten trips, bladluizen en witte vlieg op peper, tomaat, watermeloen, chrysant, witte kool, lelie, sla en pompoen. De evaluaties worden momenteel uitgebreid tot veldgewassen zoals rijst en maïs en tot rupsen en cicaden.
Ontdekking van een nieuw gen
EntoLab heeft aangetoond nauwkeuriger en gedetailleerder inzicht te geven in het gedrag van herbivore insecten op verschillende plantgenotypen, met maar liefst 90% reductie in tijd en kosten van screening. Een voorbeeld van een succesvolle toepassing van het EntoLab-systeem is het werk van dr. Karen Kloth (Wageningen Universiteit) dat leidde tot de identificatie van het nieuwe bladluisresistentiegen SLI1.
Geautomatiseerde, high-throughput fenotypering van de resistentie van waardplanten tegen zuigende insecten zal het onderzoek en het veredelingsproces voor insectenresistente gewassen enorm helpen. Het ontsluiten van gedragsdetails die vaak onopgemerkt zijn gebleven, zal in de toekomst leiden tot meer inzicht in de omgevings- en genetische mechanismen die dit beheersen. Genetische verbetering van commerciële groente-, veld- en siergewassen zal de afhankelijkheid van chemische bestrijdingsmiddelen of andere inputs verminderen en zo bijdragen aan een duurzamere en zuinigere gewasproductie.
https://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svg00HollandBIOhttps://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svgHollandBIO2021-07-19 16:44:292021-07-19 16:44:30Geautomatiseerde videotracking en gedragsanalyse van insecten ondersteunt de veredeling van resistente plantenrassen← #nieuws
Business is a trusted source of information, well suited to engage, inform and educate workers, their families and communities with a message that inspires confidence in vaccination and encourages acceptance and uptake as COVID-19 vaccines become available. Therefore, we pledge to hear concerns, listen to feedback, and develop vaccine literacy strategies based on science, facts and emerging information to counter hesitation and vaccination opponents through communication and education initiatives at the global, national and local levels. Join us!
https://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svg00HollandBIOhttps://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svgHollandBIO2021-07-19 11:06:332021-07-19 11:06:34HollandBIO joins the global COVID-19 Workplace Challenge & invites you to join too!← #nieuws
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and COVAX partners are launching an innovative ‘marketplace’ to accelerate the global production of COVID-19 vaccine doses for COVAX by matching suppliers of critical inputs with vaccine manufacturers who urgently need them to produce vaccines for fair and equitable distribution through COVAX. This initiative is a key deliverable of the COVAX Manufacturing Task Force, which is co-led by COVAX and industry partners [1].
In the past year unprecedented efforts by vaccine manufacturers and suppliers of vaccine components have aimed to triple previous annual vaccine output, scaling up to produce an estimated 11 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021 [2,3]. As a result of this historic scaling up, bottlenecks are affecting the global supply chain leading to acute shortages of vital supplies which are preventing COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers from operating at full capacity. This is delaying vaccine production and contributing to inequity.
The new COVAX Marketplace announced today is designed to address short-term bottlenecks by facilitating access to supplies needed to produce COVID-19 vaccines intended for distribution through COVAX. It will provide a secure platform for vaccine manufacturers and suppliers of critical inputs to confidentially indicate their needs or available supplies to CEPI, in its role as facilitator. CEPI will identify matching offers and requests and connect potential matches, prioritising based on objective criteria including whether the manufacturer has a COVAX advance purchase agreement and WHO EUL in place, as well as dose volumes and delivery timings. Future versions of the Marketplace may include supplies required to manufacture other lifesaving therapies and vaccines which are also being affected by current global supply shortages.
The Marketplace is expected to improve the free flow of critical COVID-19 vaccine supplies by:
Providing suppliers with a platform to allocate and reallocate unused materials.
Mobilizing idle stock from vaccines and candidates that fail prior to gaining regulatory approval – as well as from those that might scale down their production in the future.
Mobilizing potential surplusstockfrom manufacturers with non-vaccine activities.
Vaccine manufacturing processes are highly complex and expanding manufacturing capacity requires managing intricate cross-border supply chains frequently involving more than 100 components. Participants will be able to offer and request any materials required for vaccine production through the COVAX Marketplace, but it will initially focus on six categories of supplies which have been identified as critical: bioreactor bags, single use assemblies, cell culture media, filters, lipids, vials and stoppers.
Towards a scalable Marketplace platform
The COVAX Marketplace launching today is an initial version which aims to respond quickly to immediate market needs and bottlenecks. It will launch with approximately 10 – 15 participants, comprising COVAX vaccine manufacturers and suppliers of the key materials which have been identified as being most urgently needed. In parallel, in consultation with stakeholders CEPI is urgently exploring extending the Marketplace to include additional participants such as vaccine manufacturers with unused inputs – including those with failed products – Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs), and pharmaceutical companies not currently involved in COVID-19 vaccine production. This would provide a platform to resolve supply bottlenecks which could extend beyond COVID-19 vaccines to other lifesaving therapies and vaccines which are being impacted by the current supply situation.
Dr Richard Hatchett, CEPI CEO, said: “Vaccine manufacturers have described the ways in which shortages of critical supplies have limited the speed and scale at which vaccines can be produced, which means many vaccine production lines haven’t been operating at full capacity. Optimizing the use of scarce resources that may otherwise be sitting idle – by matching buyers and sellers around the globe – could contribute to improving the global supply of vaccines through COVAX. The pandemic has led to extraordinary innovation in vaccine development and production, and the COVAX Marketplace is an example of how we must continue to look beyond business as usual to find pragmatic solutions to fixable problems – such as supply chain bottlenecks – so that we can urgently unlock more COVID-19 vaccine doses for COVAX.”
Thomas Cueni, Director General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (IFPMA), said: “Today, over 3 billion doses of effective and safe vaccines have been made and administered. But to vaccinate the world’s adult population by the end of the year, we must achieve the estimated production of 11 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines. To do this, it is essential to optimize production, as well urgently increase dose sharing and remove trade barriers. A delay in the delivery of a bioreactor plastic bag can halt a whole production line and delay a batch of thousands of litres for weeks, if not months. To alert the international community to the challenges associated with this historic scaling up of vaccine production, in March 2021 we joined the Chatham House Summit on COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturing Supply Chain. One of the recommendations, strongly endorsed by industrialised, developing world vaccine manufacturers and biotech companies, was to find a practical solution to removing the inevitable bottlenecks for raw materials and components. We are delighted to have been able to contribute to the creation of this platform to facilitate matching supplies with buyers, thereby ensuring manufacturing supplies for COVID-19 vaccines. Speed is of the essence to achieve vaccine equity. This marketplace will hopefully make an important contribution towards the global endeavour of achieving the 11 billion doses target this year.”
Sai Prasad, President of Developing Country Vaccine Manufacturers’ Network, said: “Within a year and a half into this pandemic we now have several safe and effective vaccines with demonstrated evidence in real world settings. Industry from both developing and developed world have shown leadership in product development and large-scale manufacturing, resulting in more than 3 billion doses manufactured. While this is a successful outcome for most infectious diseases, it is clearly not enough to address the global public health crisis caused by this pandemic. We now need to scale up at a rapid speed to reach a production capacity of more than 10 billion doses annually. With the complexities involved with vaccine manufacturing requiring specialized human resources, facilities, raw materials, consumables etc, we need to enable the entire supply and distribution chain to rise up to this challenge. The COVAX Marketplace will enable partnerships focused on removing bottlenecks, increasing capacities and attaining our goal of vaccinating the world.”
Kevin D. Ott, Executive Director of Bio-Process Systems Alliance (BPSA), said: “BPSA’s 64 Members applaud CEPI and its partners for launching the COVAX Marketplace. It’s been said that ‘rocky roads lead to beautiful places’: the Marketplace is an exceptional and timely effort to match marketplace needs with available supplies, helping to smooth that road to global immunization with the tools and technologies needed to make the world safe again.”
[1] The COVAX Manufacturing Taskforce is spearheaded by the co-leads of COVAX – CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO – working in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and organizations representing vaccine manufacturers: International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers’ Network (DCVMN), and Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
https://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svg00HollandBIOhttps://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svgHollandBIO2021-07-16 16:00:222021-07-16 16:00:23CEPI launches COVAX Marketplace to match buyers and sellers of critical manufacturing supplies and speed up global access to COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX← #nieuws
ISA announces the closing of a EUR 26 million funding round with participation from new investors including Invest-NL and existing investors including Regeneron. The proceeds of this round will be used to advance the lead product ISA101b towards first marketing authorization as well as to broaden the clinical pipeline of immunotherapies based on the Synthetic Long Peptide (SLP®) platform technology.
Gerben Moolhuizen, CEO of ISA Pharmaceuticals, said, “We are very happy with the continued support of our existing partners and shareholders. Invest-NL’s support underlines the innovation at ISA Pharma and potential impact of our SLP® immunotherapies for the treatment of serious diseases.”
SLP® immunotherapies act through the specific activation of the patient’s own immune system. Lead product ISA101b targets cancers caused by human papilloma virus type 16 (HPV16). It is in late stage clinical development in three trials for the treatment of advanced stages of HPV16-positive head and neck cancer and cervical cancer in combination with Libtayo® (cemiplimab, anti-PD1 immunotherapy), which is being co-developed by Regeneron and Sanofi.
Leo Holwerda, Director Capital at Invest-NL, notes: “Our investment in ISA Pharmaceuticals is a good example of how our TOPSS program can help promising Dutch start-ups and innovative companies which were affected by COVID-19. Invest-NL is happy to support ISA Pharmaceuticals to accelerate its clinical studies and we are confident that the company will succeed in bringing its lead therapy for patients with HPV16-positive head & neck cancer and cervical cancer to the market. This innovative and impactful therapy will strengthen the prospects of many patients.”
Persistent HPV16 infection can cause head & neck, cervical and anogenital cancers. These cancers can be severe and life-threatening with low overall survival rates once these cancers progress to advanced stages. HPV16 is a major cause of head & neck cancer with over 25,000 new cases and 11,000 deaths in Europe (source) and 46,000 new cases and 9,000 deaths in the US (source). HPV16 is also responsible for about 50% of cervical cancer cases. Cervical cancer is the 2nd most common cancer in women aged 15 to 44 years in Europe, with over 60,000 new diagnoses and 25,000 deaths each year in Europe. Globally there are more than 500,000 new patients and 300,000 deaths (source).
The SLP® technology platform is at the basis of several ISA pipeline products that are scheduled to proceed into clinical trials over the next few years. Three promising products are in the final stages of pre-clinical development. ISA104 targets the hepatitis B virus (HBV) in chronically infected patients. Chronic HBV is a major cause of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer and affects over 250 million people worldwide (source). ISA103 is aimed at tumours that express PRAME, a protein closely associated with the malignant behaviour of cells in numerous types of cancers. ISA106 is a potential treatment for high risk COVID-19 infected patients.
Khondrion, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing therapies targeting mitochondrial disease, today announces the publication of new research in PLOSONE examining the in vivo active metabolite of sonlicromanol, as a selective inhibitor of microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 (mPGES-1)-mediated PGE2 synthesis in prostate cancer stem cells and its potential as a novel treatment approach for prostate cancer and other cancers with high mPGES-1 expression.
Sonlicromanol (KH176) is Khondrion’s wholly-owned investigational lead asset, currently in phase IIb development as a potentially disease-modifying treatment for mitochondrial disease. The Company has previously demonstrated the ability of sonlicromanol’s active metabolite to selectively inhibit mPGES-1, a key enzyme involved in the production of prostaglandin E2. This prostaglandin, known to induce and propagate the inflammation response, was found in significantly increased levels in cells derived from mitochondrial disease patients. Importantly, the aggressiveness of cancers, like prostate cancer, has also been found in independent studies to be associated with elevated expression of mPGES-1.
The new research, authored by Khondrion, details the effects of selective mPGES-1 targeting by sonlicromanol’s active metabolite, and examines its potential to decrease the aggressiveness of prostate cancer by inhibiting mPGES-1 expression.
The research team found that inhibition of mPGES-1 by sonlicromanol’s metabolite was able to considerably reduce spheroid growth in the human prostate cancer cell line DU145, potentially offering a novel approach in treating prostate cancer and other malignancies with high expression of mPGES-1. Sonlicromanol’s active metabolite was found to reduce the constitutively high mPGES-1 levels. The growth of spheroids in a physiological relevant 3D environment for tumour cells was reduced and the prostate cancer stem cell population was selectively decreased. These findings are of particular interest as they further strengthen earlier research indicating the potential of sonlicromanol [human plasma exposure at steady-state: active metabolite = ½ KH176] as a treatment for patients with high mPGES-1 expression and signal its potential as an anti-tumour drug, based on its ability to decrease the size of cancer stem cell-formed spheroids.
Dr. Herma Renkema, Chief Early Development Officer at Khondrion and co-author of the paper, said: “These are significant findings that build on our earlier research into the anti-inflammatory effect of sonlicromanol and its potential as a disease-modifying drug for patients with mitochondrial disease. That research led us to explore the potential of this compound beyond mitochondrial disease, given what we know about its mode of action. Inhibition of mPGES-1 expression is an approach currently being investigated to identify new therapeutic avenues for prostate cancer, which is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in the Western world and the leading cause of cancer-related death in men over 65 years of age. Our research provides compelling evidence to support further studies investigating the potential of sonlicromanol as an anti-tumour drug in prostate and other human cancers.”
A link to the study – Jiang, X., Renkema, H., Smeitink, J., Beyrath J. Sonlicromanol’s active metabolite KH176m normalizes prostate cancer stem cell mPGES-1 overexpression and inhibits cancer spheroid growth. PLoS ONE 16(7): e0254315 (2021) – can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254315
https://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svg00HollandBIOhttps://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svgHollandBIO2021-07-12 15:59:002021-07-21 13:49:43Khondrion announces publication in PLOS ONE of new research showing normalisation of prostate cancer stem cell mPGES-1 overexpression and inhibition of cancer spheroid growth by sonlicromanol’s active metabolite← #nieuws
Mooi nieuws! Unaniem spoort de Tweede Kamer de regering aan om de ontwikkeling van nieuwe antibiotica te ondersteunen. Deze motie volgt op het recent verschenen Access to Medicine Foundation-rapport “Biotechs are saving the world form superbugs. Can they also save themselves?”. Ook nu is er namelijk al sprake van een wereldwijde “stille pandemie” van resistente infecties die globaal jaarlijks aan circa 700.000 mensen het leven kost.
De ontwikkeling van nieuwe, levensreddende antibiotica ligt voor een groot deel in de handen van kleine, innovatieve biotech bedrijven. De route die hun nieuwe producten van lab naar praktijk moeten afleggen is veelal een financiële lijdensweg – als die producten de eindstreep al halen. Juist om resistentie te voorkomen worden nieuwe antibiotica namelijk slechts spaarzaam ingezet. Daardoor hebben steeds meer bedrijven moeite om het hoofd boven water te houden.
Volgens de Access to Medicines Foundation zijn er nieuwe marktprikkels nodig om een medische catastrofe te voorkomen. Bijvoorbeeld in de vorm van abonnementsmodellen of beloningen voor het bereiken van mijlpalen, waaronder het bereiken van de markt (zogeheten market entry rewards). Volgens het rapport zou Nederland ook van de aanpak in Zweden en het VK kunnen leren. Genoeg te doen dus!
HollandBIO is daarom ontzettend blij dat de Kamer de regering oproept om werk te maken van de ontwikkeling van nieuwe antibiotica. Zij vraagt de regering de bijdragen vanuit de overheid voor nieuwe vormen van antibiotica op zo’n wijze te construeren dat de slaagkans wordt vergroot en ook om zich op Europees niveau in te zetten voor vernieuwende vormen van investeringen in en onderzoek naar nieuwe antibioticavarianten.
Qorium raises € 2.6 million to expand R&D to scale up its cell cultured collagen based leather technology. Brightlands Venture Partners led the investment round and was joined by an undisclosed reputed international biotech investor.
Qorium is a biotechnology driven company aiming to provide the world with a premium, cell cultured collagen-based leather. Qorium was founded in 2014, by Rutger Ploem, Stef Kranendijk, Mark Post and Maastricht University, and recently realized a proof of concept of cultivated real leather, a true breakthrough. Compared to conventional leather Qorium’s cultivated leather is made by using 99% less water, 66% less energy, without the most polluting first two phases of the tanning process and, importantly, without any methane gas as emitted by the numerous cows responsible for the global 2 billion square meter/year conventional leather market. With the current funding large sheets of cultivated real leather, will be made from just a few living cells from a bovine skin.
Stef Kranendijk, co-CEO and co-founder at Qorium says: “Our aim is to develop an expected fast growing cultivatedleather market. We look forward to provide real high-quality leather made in a dramatically more sustainable way than conventional leather. This will be a game changing, revolutionary transformation of the current leather market.”
Rutger Ploem, co-CEO and co-founder at Qorium continues: “More and more users of leather, particularly the premium high-end brands in the leather fashion, footwear and automotive industry want all the properties of real leather without the tremendously high negative impact on the environment that comes with livestock rearing. Qorium provides exactly that. Qorium cultivated leather is also better because it comes with no imperfections, no defects and no waste: every square meter of grown Qorium leather can be fully used.”
Professor Mark Post, Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder at Qorium says: “It is exciting to combine cell culture and tissue engineering to produce very large structured collagen tissues ready to be tanned and finished into full thickness beautiful leather that can be cut to make high-end products. At the same time, we will transition this originally proven medical technology to one that produces collagen at large scale and is cost-effective and sustainable.”
According to Mary McCarthy, Partner at Brightlands Venture Partners: “We are very excited to invest in Qorium, this is game changing technology that will bring sustainable natural leather to the market, independent of meat production and animal friendly. This is our second investment from our Brightlands Venture Partners Fund IV, a fund that has been co-funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).”
https://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svg00HollandBIOhttps://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svgHollandBIO2021-07-09 15:22:332021-07-09 15:22:34Qorium raises € 2.6 mln to further develop its truly sustainable cultivated leather technology← #nieuws
Viewpoint Molecular Targeting, Inc. (“Viewpoint” or the “Company”), a radiopharmaceutical company developing precision lead-212-based α-particle oncology therapeutics and complementary diagnostic imaging agents, announced it has entered into a collaborative partnership with Netherlands-based Pepscan Therapeutics B.V. (“Pepscan”), the all-in-one peptide service provider with proprietary peptide constraining technologies.
“Pepscan is clearly a world leader in peptide discovery and lead optimization, and we are delighted to have taken the first step on this journey,” commented Michael K Schultz PhD, Chief Science Officer and Co-Founder of Viewpoint. “In our diligence, the Pepscan team is technically and professionally the strongest we’ve had the pleasure to work with. We are particularly excited to see how their CLIPS™ innovative scaffold technology results in superior synthetic peptide candidates for us to develop.”
Peptide-based radiopharmaceuticals have recently emerged as an exciting therapeutic and diagnostic platform in the areas of neuroendocrine tumors, prostate cancer, and other solid tumors. Pepscan’s world-leading libraries of CLIPS™ (Chemical Linkage of Peptides onto Scaffolds) constrained peptides combined with its screening technologies and deep knowledge of the discovery process will result in optimal ligands which bind cancer-specific cellular targets with high affinity and selectivity. In post-discovery the candidates can be modified with Viewpoint’s proprietary linker and chelator technology which is specific for the lead-212 therapeutic isotope and lead-203 imaging isotope. This allows Viewpoint’s in-house scientists to optimize the pharmacokinetic “tuning” of the peptides to ensure high tumor uptake and reduced healthy organ uptake.
“We are excited to join Viewpoint’s journey and enabling them to reach life-improving breakthroughs. Ultimately, the success of our peptide discovery and optimization for radiopharmaceuticals lies in the technical strength, expertise, and understanding of the team that transitions our candidates to a clinically-relevant radiopharmaceutical drug.” says Pepscan’s Director of Peptide Discovery Michael Goldflam. “Given Viewpoint’s track-record in translating its two lead products through development to clinic-ready status, we have great confidence that the Viewpoint team will achieve success based on our discovery results.”
This collaborative partnership agreement provides an avenue for both Viewpoint and Pepscan to focus on their world-leading expertise and technologies in order to accelerate the process from discovery phase to clinic-ready radiopharmaceuticals. The terms of the agreement are to remain confidential.
Universiteiten zijn een ontmoetingsplek voor ondernemers en investeerders en een veilige haven om te onderzoeken of in je goede idee ook een bedrijfje schuilt. Wat ze echter niet zouden moeten doen is durfinvesteerder spelen voor start-ups, dat is althans de raad die hoogleraar Ondernemerschap en Innovatie Dries Faems de academie meegeeft na een decennium aan het opzetten van accelerators en incubators. Anders gezegd: schoenmaker blijf bij je leest, aldus Faems in een opinie in het FD.
Andere wereld
Een instelling besturen vraagt om een andere strategie dan het leiden van een start-up. Waar het besturen van een instelling vraagt om een risicomijdende aanpak, daar kan een start-up alleen verder komen door een gokje te wagen. Die verschillende werelden laten zich moeilijk met elkaar rijmen. Faems ziet die tegenstelling als een van de oorzaken van de gebrekkige financiering van start-ups. Bij de eerste de beste tegenslag wordt het universiteiten te warm onder de voeten en stoppen zij de financiering. En zonder financiering geen start-up. De meest risicovolle start-ups krijgen daardoor niet de mogelijkheid om door te groeien.
Juist in de kennis- en kapitaalintensieve biotechsector zien we dit terug. Eerder bleek uit onderzoek van HollandBIO dat de groei van innovatieve biotechbedrijven in Nederland sterk achterloopt op andere Europese landen, terwijl we qua kennis en octrooiaanvragen wel tot de Europese top behoren. Dat is zonde, want dat betekent uiteindelijk dat we impact en waarde voor patiënten en consumenten laten liggen.
Faciliteer een ondernemend ecosysteem
Faems ziet tegelijkertijd wel een belangrijke rol voor universiteiten in het stimuleren van start-ups. Ten eerste is de universiteit een ontmoetingsplek voor (would be) ondernemers en financiers. Initiatieven zoals Graduate Entrepeneur in Rotterdam en Delft zijn daar een mooi voorbeeld van. Daarnaast kunnen universiteiten ook een veilige omgeving bieden, waarin je mag vallen en opstaan, waar jonge ondernemers kunnen ontdekken of in hun idee ook een bedrijf zit.
Wij volgen Faems helemaal in deze opvatting. Sterker nog, zijn ideeën komen terug in ons biotech booster Groeifondsvoorstel. Door ideeën verder te brengen in een veilige omgeving en met bedrijfsmatige begeleiding kunnen we meer successen boeken. Daarnaast richt het plan zich op het versterken van het biotech ecosysteem zodat we biotech innovaties tot bloei laten komen. Zo verzilveren we de waarde die biotech te bieden heeft!
Wat heeft het “Verder met Vaccineren”-beleid opgebracht? In deze voortgangsbrief belicht staatssecretaris Blokhuis de resultaten. De trendbreuk rond de -voorheen- dalende vaccinatiegraad geeft reden tot feest, al gaat bij HollandBIO de champagne pas écht open als het volgend kabinet doorpakt op de recente adviezen voor een verbeterd Nederlands vaccinatiestelsel.
Staatssecretaris Blokhuis zette zich de afgelopen beleidstermijn samen met “zijn” vaccinatiealliantie en de denktank desinformatie in voor het Nederlandse vaccinatiebeleid. Gewapend met een actieplan is het hem gelukt om de dalende trend in de vaccinatiegraad te keren: een mooi resultaat! Hij stelde daarnaast diverse nieuwe vaccinatieprogramma’s in, waaronder bijvoorbeeld de maternale kinkhoestvaccinatie en een uitbreiding van de HPV-vaccinatie naar jongens. Ook kijkt hij positief aan tegen de invoer van een gordelroosvaccinatie voor ouderen, en was hij eerder positief over de invoer van een rotavirusvaccinatie in risicogroepen, waar recent een aangepast GR-advies over uitkwam.
Tot HollandBIO’s grote genoegen merkte Blokhuis ook op dat het vaak lang duurt voordat nieuwe vaccins een arm bereiken. Diverse vraagstukken over de in- en uitvoer spelen daarbij een rol – en gaven Blokhuis aanleiding een verkenning naar de bestendigheid van het Nederlandse vaccinatiestelsel uit de zetten bij de Raad voor Volksgezondheid en Samenleving. Nu de resultaten van de verkenning, en hetadvies van het Zorginstituut over de vaccinatiezorg voor medische risicogroepen bekend zijn, laat Blokhuis de broodnodige verbeteringen aan het stelsel aan zijn opvolger over.
Hoewel er onder leiding van Blokhuis mooie stappen gezet zijn, gaat het dak er bij HollandBIO pas echt af als het ons lukt om ook het vaccinatiestelsel duurzaam te verbeteren. Essentieel daarvoor is een overkoepelende visie, met breed gedragen doelen, een bijpassende strategie en een goed gecoördineerde, gezamenlijke uitvoering. Blokhuis laat daarmee een bijzonder relevante en actuele uitdaging achter voor zijn opvolger. Wie pakt de handschoen op?
https://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svg00HollandBIOhttps://www.hollandbio.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HollandBIO_logo.svgHollandBIO2021-07-06 15:40:082023-09-27 16:30:17Het effect van “Verder met Vaccineren”
Geautomatiseerde videotracking en gedragsanalyse van insecten ondersteunt de veredeling van resistente plantenrassen
Voedsel en materialenNoldus Information Technology kondigt de commerciële release aan van EntoLab™, een nieuw geautomatiseerd systeem voor geautomatiseerde high-throughput screening van insectengedrag, ontwikkeld in samenwerking met Wageningen University & Research. EntoLab zorgt voor een revolutie in de plantenveredeling door de geautomatiseerde identificatie van resistentie-eigenschappen van insecten en draagt zo bij aan een duurzamere landbouw.
Bladzuigende insecten, zoals trips, bladluizen en wittevlieg, kunnen door zowel directe schade als virusoverdracht verwoestende effecten hebben in de land- en tuinbouw. Traditioneel worden deze insectenplagen bestreden door herhaaldelijk spuiten van insecticiden. Het recente verbod op neonicotinoïden (neuroactieve insecticiden) in Europa en de Verenigde Staten, en de bezorgdheid over de schadelijke effecten van pesticiden in het algemeen, roepen dringend om alternatieven, vooral als biologische bestrijding te duur of niet effectief is. Het verlies aan opbrengst door plantenetende insecten kan sterk worden verminderd als gewassen zelf beter zijn uitgerust met afweermechanismen.
Veredelen op waardplantresistentie
Om deze reden staat het veredelen op waardplantresistentie tegen zuigende insecten de laatste jaren sterk in de belangstelling, aangezien het verreweg de meest economische en milieuvriendelijke oplossing voor telers is. Een cruciaal element in het veredelingsproces is de nauwkeurige schatting van het resistentieniveau van grote populaties kruisingen. Hiervoor zijn robuuste fenotyperingssystemen nodig die op een high-throughput manier nauwkeurig veel verschillende plantlijnen met insecten kunnen screenen. Conventionele fenotyperingsmethoden zijn gericht op kostbare, arbeidsintensieve en tijdrovende eindpuntmetingen die vaak slecht reproduceerbaar zijn.
EntoLab
EntoLab is de langverwachte oplossing die de beperkingen van conventionele screeningsmethoden overwint. EntoLab is ontwikkeld door Noldus Information Technology in samenwerking met het team van dr. Maarten Jongsma van de businessunit Bioscience van Wageningen Plant Research en gerenommeerde plantenveredelaars. Het is een nieuw geautomatiseerd systeem voor geautomatiseerde screening van planten op resistentie tegen zuigende insecten op basis van het volgen van hun gedrag. Het geïntegreerde hardware-/softwaresysteem omvat een verscheidenheid aan bladhouders met meerdere arena’s, speciale optica, een digitale videocamera met hoge resolutie, LED-verlichting en software voor videotracking, gegevensverwerking en statistische analyse. EntoLab is gevalideerd voor verschillende soorten trips, bladluizen en witte vlieg op peper, tomaat, watermeloen, chrysant, witte kool, lelie, sla en pompoen. De evaluaties worden momenteel uitgebreid tot veldgewassen zoals rijst en maïs en tot rupsen en cicaden.
Ontdekking van een nieuw gen
EntoLab heeft aangetoond nauwkeuriger en gedetailleerder inzicht te geven in het gedrag van herbivore insecten op verschillende plantgenotypen, met maar liefst 90% reductie in tijd en kosten van screening. Een voorbeeld van een succesvolle toepassing van het EntoLab-systeem is het werk van dr. Karen Kloth (Wageningen Universiteit) dat leidde tot de identificatie van het nieuwe bladluisresistentiegen SLI1.
Geautomatiseerde, high-throughput fenotypering van de resistentie van waardplanten tegen zuigende insecten zal het onderzoek en het veredelingsproces voor insectenresistente gewassen enorm helpen. Het ontsluiten van gedragsdetails die vaak onopgemerkt zijn gebleven, zal in de toekomst leiden tot meer inzicht in de omgevings- en genetische mechanismen die dit beheersen. Genetische verbetering van commerciële groente-, veld- en siergewassen zal de afhankelijkheid van chemische bestrijdingsmiddelen of andere inputs verminderen en zo bijdragen aan een duurzamere en zuinigere gewasproductie.
Bron: Noldus (Persbericht)
HollandBIO joins the global COVID-19 Workplace Challenge & invites you to join too!
HollandbioBusiness is a trusted source of information, well suited to engage, inform and educate workers, their families and communities with a message that inspires confidence in vaccination and encourages acceptance and uptake as COVID-19 vaccines become available. Therefore, we pledge to hear concerns, listen to feedback, and develop vaccine literacy strategies based on science, facts and emerging information to counter hesitation and vaccination opponents through communication and education initiatives at the global, national and local levels. Join us!
CEPI launches COVAX Marketplace to match buyers and sellers of critical manufacturing supplies and speed up global access to COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX
GezondheidThe Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and COVAX partners are launching an innovative ‘marketplace’ to accelerate the global production of COVID-19 vaccine doses for COVAX by matching suppliers of critical inputs with vaccine manufacturers who urgently need them to produce vaccines for fair and equitable distribution through COVAX. This initiative is a key deliverable of the COVAX Manufacturing Task Force, which is co-led by COVAX and industry partners [1].
In the past year unprecedented efforts by vaccine manufacturers and suppliers of vaccine components have aimed to triple previous annual vaccine output, scaling up to produce an estimated 11 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021 [2,3]. As a result of this historic scaling up, bottlenecks are affecting the global supply chain leading to acute shortages of vital supplies which are preventing COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers from operating at full capacity. This is delaying vaccine production and contributing to inequity.
The new COVAX Marketplace announced today is designed to address short-term bottlenecks by facilitating access to supplies needed to produce COVID-19 vaccines intended for distribution through COVAX. It will provide a secure platform for vaccine manufacturers and suppliers of critical inputs to confidentially indicate their needs or available supplies to CEPI, in its role as facilitator. CEPI will identify matching offers and requests and connect potential matches, prioritising based on objective criteria including whether the manufacturer has a COVAX advance purchase agreement and WHO EUL in place, as well as dose volumes and delivery timings. Future versions of the Marketplace may include supplies required to manufacture other lifesaving therapies and vaccines which are also being affected by current global supply shortages.
The Marketplace is expected to improve the free flow of critical COVID-19 vaccine supplies by:
Providing suppliers with a platform to allocate and reallocate unused materials.
Mobilizing idle stock from vaccines and candidates that fail prior to gaining regulatory approval – as well as from those that might scale down their production in the future.
Mobilizing potential surplus stock from manufacturers with non-vaccine activities.
Vaccine manufacturing processes are highly complex and expanding manufacturing capacity requires managing intricate cross-border supply chains frequently involving more than 100 components. Participants will be able to offer and request any materials required for vaccine production through the COVAX Marketplace, but it will initially focus on six categories of supplies which have been identified as critical: bioreactor bags, single use assemblies, cell culture media, filters, lipids, vials and stoppers.
Towards a scalable Marketplace platform
The COVAX Marketplace launching today is an initial version which aims to respond quickly to immediate market needs and bottlenecks. It will launch with approximately 10 – 15 participants, comprising COVAX vaccine manufacturers and suppliers of the key materials which have been identified as being most urgently needed. In parallel, in consultation with stakeholders CEPI is urgently exploring extending the Marketplace to include additional participants such as vaccine manufacturers with unused inputs – including those with failed products – Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations (CDMOs), and pharmaceutical companies not currently involved in COVID-19 vaccine production. This would provide a platform to resolve supply bottlenecks which could extend beyond COVID-19 vaccines to other lifesaving therapies and vaccines which are being impacted by the current supply situation.
Prospective participants in the Marketplace are encouraged to visit the COVAX Marketplace webpage and submit an expression of interest at marketplace@cepi.net.
Dr Richard Hatchett, CEPI CEO, said: “Vaccine manufacturers have described the ways in which shortages of critical supplies have limited the speed and scale at which vaccines can be produced, which means many vaccine production lines haven’t been operating at full capacity. Optimizing the use of scarce resources that may otherwise be sitting idle – by matching buyers and sellers around the globe – could contribute to improving the global supply of vaccines through COVAX. The pandemic has led to extraordinary innovation in vaccine development and production, and the COVAX Marketplace is an example of how we must continue to look beyond business as usual to find pragmatic solutions to fixable problems – such as supply chain bottlenecks – so that we can urgently unlock more COVID-19 vaccine doses for COVAX.”
Thomas Cueni, Director General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (IFPMA), said: “Today, over 3 billion doses of effective and safe vaccines have been made and administered. But to vaccinate the world’s adult population by the end of the year, we must achieve the estimated production of 11 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines. To do this, it is essential to optimize production, as well urgently increase dose sharing and remove trade barriers. A delay in the delivery of a bioreactor plastic bag can halt a whole production line and delay a batch of thousands of litres for weeks, if not months. To alert the international community to the challenges associated with this historic scaling up of vaccine production, in March 2021 we joined the Chatham House Summit on COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturing Supply Chain. One of the recommendations, strongly endorsed by industrialised, developing world vaccine manufacturers and biotech companies, was to find a practical solution to removing the inevitable bottlenecks for raw materials and components. We are delighted to have been able to contribute to the creation of this platform to facilitate matching supplies with buyers, thereby ensuring manufacturing supplies for COVID-19 vaccines. Speed is of the essence to achieve vaccine equity. This marketplace will hopefully make an important contribution towards the global endeavour of achieving the 11 billion doses target this year.”
Sai Prasad, President of Developing Country Vaccine Manufacturers’ Network, said: “Within a year and a half into this pandemic we now have several safe and effective vaccines with demonstrated evidence in real world settings. Industry from both developing and developed world have shown leadership in product development and large-scale manufacturing, resulting in more than 3 billion doses manufactured. While this is a successful outcome for most infectious diseases, it is clearly not enough to address the global public health crisis caused by this pandemic. We now need to scale up at a rapid speed to reach a production capacity of more than 10 billion doses annually. With the complexities involved with vaccine manufacturing requiring specialized human resources, facilities, raw materials, consumables etc, we need to enable the entire supply and distribution chain to rise up to this challenge. The COVAX Marketplace will enable partnerships focused on removing bottlenecks, increasing capacities and attaining our goal of vaccinating the world.”
Kevin D. Ott, Executive Director of Bio-Process Systems Alliance (BPSA), said: “BPSA’s 64 Members applaud CEPI and its partners for launching the COVAX Marketplace. It’s been said that ‘rocky roads lead to beautiful places’: the Marketplace is an exceptional and timely effort to match marketplace needs with available supplies, helping to smooth that road to global immunization with the tools and technologies needed to make the world safe again.”
[1] The COVAX Manufacturing Taskforce is spearheaded by the co-leads of COVAX – CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO – working in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and organizations representing vaccine manufacturers: International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers’ Network (DCVMN), and Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
[2] Towards Vaccinating the World: Landscape of current COVID-19 supply chain and manufacturing capacity, potential challenges, initial responses, and possible ‘solution space’ – a discussion paper, 9 March 2021
[3] COVID-19 vaccine briefing. Science based forecasts for the short and long term, 28 June 2021
Source: CEPI (Press release)
ISA announces successful closing of EUR 26 million funding round
InnovatieklimaatISA announces the closing of a EUR 26 million funding round with participation from new investors including Invest-NL and existing investors including Regeneron. The proceeds of this round will be used to advance the lead product ISA101b towards first marketing authorization as well as to broaden the clinical pipeline of immunotherapies based on the Synthetic Long Peptide (SLP®) platform technology.
Gerben Moolhuizen, CEO of ISA Pharmaceuticals, said, “We are very happy with the continued support of our existing partners and shareholders. Invest-NL’s support underlines the innovation at ISA Pharma and potential impact of our SLP® immunotherapies for the treatment of serious diseases.”
SLP® immunotherapies act through the specific activation of the patient’s own immune system. Lead product ISA101b targets cancers caused by human papilloma virus type 16 (HPV16). It is in late stage clinical development in three trials for the treatment of advanced stages of HPV16-positive head and neck cancer and cervical cancer in combination with Libtayo® (cemiplimab, anti-PD1 immunotherapy), which is being co-developed by Regeneron and Sanofi.
Leo Holwerda, Director Capital at Invest-NL, notes: “Our investment in ISA Pharmaceuticals is a good example of how our TOPSS program can help promising Dutch start-ups and innovative companies which were affected by COVID-19. Invest-NL is happy to support ISA Pharmaceuticals to accelerate its clinical studies and we are confident that the company will succeed in bringing its lead therapy for patients with HPV16-positive head & neck cancer and cervical cancer to the market. This innovative and impactful therapy will strengthen the prospects of many patients.”
Persistent HPV16 infection can cause head & neck, cervical and anogenital cancers. These cancers can be severe and life-threatening with low overall survival rates once these cancers progress to advanced stages. HPV16 is a major cause of head & neck cancer with over 25,000 new cases and 11,000 deaths in Europe (source) and 46,000 new cases and 9,000 deaths in the US (source).
HPV16 is also responsible for about 50% of cervical cancer cases. Cervical cancer is the 2nd most common cancer in women aged 15 to 44 years in Europe, with over 60,000 new diagnoses and 25,000 deaths each year in Europe. Globally there are more than 500,000 new patients and 300,000 deaths (source).
The SLP® technology platform is at the basis of several ISA pipeline products that are scheduled to proceed into clinical trials over the next few years. Three promising products are in the final stages of pre-clinical development. ISA104 targets the hepatitis B virus (HBV) in chronically infected patients. Chronic HBV is a major cause of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer and affects over 250 million people worldwide (source). ISA103 is aimed at tumours that express PRAME, a protein closely associated with the malignant behaviour of cells in numerous types of cancers. ISA106 is a potential treatment for high risk COVID-19 infected patients.
Source: ISA Pharmaceuticals (Press release)
Khondrion announces publication in PLOS ONE of new research showing normalisation of prostate cancer stem cell mPGES-1 overexpression and inhibition of cancer spheroid growth by sonlicromanol’s active metabolite
GezondheidKhondrion, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing therapies targeting mitochondrial disease, today announces the publication of new research in PLOS ONE examining the in vivo active metabolite of sonlicromanol, as a selective inhibitor of microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 (mPGES-1)-mediated PGE2 synthesis in prostate cancer stem cells and its potential as a novel treatment approach for prostate cancer and other cancers with high mPGES-1 expression.
Sonlicromanol (KH176) is Khondrion’s wholly-owned investigational lead asset, currently in phase IIb development as a potentially disease-modifying treatment for mitochondrial disease. The Company has previously demonstrated the ability of sonlicromanol’s active metabolite to selectively inhibit mPGES-1, a key enzyme involved in the production of prostaglandin E2. This prostaglandin, known to induce and propagate the inflammation response, was found in significantly increased levels in cells derived from mitochondrial disease patients. Importantly, the aggressiveness of cancers, like prostate cancer, has also been found in independent studies to be associated with elevated expression of mPGES-1.
The new research, authored by Khondrion, details the effects of selective mPGES-1 targeting by sonlicromanol’s active metabolite, and examines its potential to decrease the aggressiveness of prostate cancer by inhibiting mPGES-1 expression.
The research team found that inhibition of mPGES-1 by sonlicromanol’s metabolite was able to considerably reduce spheroid growth in the human prostate cancer cell line DU145, potentially offering a novel approach in treating prostate cancer and other malignancies with high expression of mPGES-1. Sonlicromanol’s active metabolite was found to reduce the constitutively high mPGES-1 levels. The growth of spheroids in a physiological relevant 3D environment for tumour cells was reduced and the prostate cancer stem cell population was selectively decreased. These findings are of particular interest as they further strengthen earlier research indicating the potential of sonlicromanol [human plasma exposure at steady-state: active metabolite = ½ KH176] as a treatment for patients with high mPGES-1 expression and signal its potential as an anti-tumour drug, based on its ability to decrease the size of cancer stem cell-formed spheroids.
Dr. Herma Renkema, Chief Early Development Officer at Khondrion and co-author of the paper, said: “These are significant findings that build on our earlier research into the anti-inflammatory effect of sonlicromanol and its potential as a disease-modifying drug for patients with mitochondrial disease. That research led us to explore the potential of this compound beyond mitochondrial disease, given what we know about its mode of action. Inhibition of mPGES-1 expression is an approach currently being investigated to identify new therapeutic avenues for prostate cancer, which is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in the Western world and the leading cause of cancer-related death in men over 65 years of age. Our research provides compelling evidence to support further studies investigating the potential of sonlicromanol as an anti-tumour drug in prostate and other human cancers.”
A link to the study – Jiang, X., Renkema, H., Smeitink, J., Beyrath J. Sonlicromanol’s active metabolite KH176m normalizes prostate cancer stem cell mPGES-1 overexpression and inhibits cancer spheroid growth. PLoS ONE 16(7): e0254315 (2021) – can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254315
Source: Khondrion (Press release)
Kamer wil stille pandemie van antibioticaresistentie bestrijden
Gezondheid op maat, Gezondheid, UitgelichtMooi nieuws! Unaniem spoort de Tweede Kamer de regering aan om de ontwikkeling van nieuwe antibiotica te ondersteunen. Deze motie volgt op het recent verschenen Access to Medicine Foundation-rapport “Biotechs are saving the world form superbugs. Can they also save themselves?”. Ook nu is er namelijk al sprake van een wereldwijde “stille pandemie” van resistente infecties die globaal jaarlijks aan circa 700.000 mensen het leven kost.
De ontwikkeling van nieuwe, levensreddende antibiotica ligt voor een groot deel in de handen van kleine, innovatieve biotech bedrijven. De route die hun nieuwe producten van lab naar praktijk moeten afleggen is veelal een financiële lijdensweg – als die producten de eindstreep al halen. Juist om resistentie te voorkomen worden nieuwe antibiotica namelijk slechts spaarzaam ingezet. Daardoor hebben steeds meer bedrijven moeite om het hoofd boven water te houden.
Volgens de Access to Medicines Foundation zijn er nieuwe marktprikkels nodig om een medische catastrofe te voorkomen. Bijvoorbeeld in de vorm van abonnementsmodellen of beloningen voor het bereiken van mijlpalen, waaronder het bereiken van de markt (zogeheten market entry rewards). Volgens het rapport zou Nederland ook van de aanpak in Zweden en het VK kunnen leren. Genoeg te doen dus!
HollandBIO is daarom ontzettend blij dat de Kamer de regering oproept om werk te maken van de ontwikkeling van nieuwe antibiotica. Zij vraagt de regering de bijdragen vanuit de overheid voor nieuwe vormen van antibiotica op zo’n wijze te construeren dat de slaagkans wordt vergroot en ook om zich op Europees niveau in te zetten voor vernieuwende vormen van investeringen in en onderzoek naar nieuwe antibioticavarianten.
Qorium raises € 2.6 mln to further develop its truly sustainable cultivated leather technology
Voedsel en materialenQorium raises € 2.6 million to expand R&D to scale up its cell cultured collagen based leather technology. Brightlands Venture Partners led the investment round and was joined by an undisclosed reputed international biotech investor.
Qorium is a biotechnology driven company aiming to provide the world with a premium, cell cultured collagen-based leather. Qorium was founded in 2014, by Rutger Ploem, Stef Kranendijk, Mark Post and Maastricht University, and recently realized a proof of concept of cultivated real leather, a true breakthrough. Compared to conventional leather Qorium’s cultivated leather is made by using 99% less water, 66% less energy, without the most polluting first two phases of the tanning process and, importantly, without any methane gas as emitted by the numerous cows responsible for the global 2 billion square meter/year conventional leather market. With the current funding large sheets of cultivated real leather, will be made from just a few living cells from a bovine skin.
Stef Kranendijk, co-CEO and co-founder at Qorium says: “Our aim is to develop an expected fast growing cultivatedleather market. We look forward to provide real high-quality leather made in a dramatically more sustainable way than conventional leather. This will be a game changing, revolutionary transformation of the current leather market.”
Rutger Ploem, co-CEO and co-founder at Qorium continues: “More and more users of leather, particularly the premium high-end brands in the leather fashion, footwear and automotive industry want all the properties of real leather without the tremendously high negative impact on the environment that comes with livestock rearing. Qorium provides exactly that. Qorium cultivated leather is also better because it comes with no imperfections, no defects and no waste: every square meter of grown Qorium leather can be fully used.”
Professor Mark Post, Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder at Qorium says: “It is exciting to combine cell culture and tissue engineering to produce very large structured collagen tissues ready to be tanned and finished into full thickness beautiful leather that can be cut to make high-end products. At the same time, we will transition this originally proven medical technology to one that produces collagen at large scale and is cost-effective and sustainable.”
According to Mary McCarthy, Partner at Brightlands Venture Partners: “We are very excited to invest in Qorium, this is game changing technology that will bring sustainable natural leather to the market, independent of meat production and animal friendly. This is our second investment from our Brightlands Venture Partners Fund IV, a fund that has been co-funded by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).”
Source: Qorium (Press release)
Viewpoint Molecular Targeting® Partners with Industry Leader Pepscan to Accelerate Peptide Discovery Program
GezondheidViewpoint Molecular Targeting, Inc. (“Viewpoint” or the “Company”), a radiopharmaceutical company developing precision lead-212-based α-particle oncology therapeutics and complementary diagnostic imaging agents, announced it has entered into a collaborative partnership with Netherlands-based Pepscan Therapeutics B.V. (“Pepscan”), the all-in-one peptide service provider with proprietary peptide constraining technologies.
“Pepscan is clearly a world leader in peptide discovery and lead optimization, and we are delighted to have taken the first step on this journey,” commented Michael K Schultz PhD, Chief Science Officer and Co-Founder of Viewpoint. “In our diligence, the Pepscan team is technically and professionally the strongest we’ve had the pleasure to work with. We are particularly excited to see how their CLIPS™ innovative scaffold technology results in superior synthetic peptide candidates for us to develop.”
Peptide-based radiopharmaceuticals have recently emerged as an exciting therapeutic and diagnostic platform in the areas of neuroendocrine tumors, prostate cancer, and other solid tumors. Pepscan’s world-leading libraries of CLIPS™ (Chemical Linkage of Peptides onto Scaffolds) constrained peptides combined with its screening technologies and deep knowledge of the discovery process will result in optimal ligands which bind cancer-specific cellular targets with high affinity and selectivity. In post-discovery the candidates can be modified with Viewpoint’s proprietary linker and chelator technology which is specific for the lead-212 therapeutic isotope and lead-203 imaging isotope. This allows Viewpoint’s in-house scientists to optimize the pharmacokinetic “tuning” of the peptides to ensure high tumor uptake and reduced healthy organ uptake.
“We are excited to join Viewpoint’s journey and enabling them to reach life-improving breakthroughs. Ultimately, the success of our peptide discovery and optimization for radiopharmaceuticals lies in the technical strength, expertise, and understanding of the team that transitions our candidates to a clinically-relevant radiopharmaceutical drug.” says Pepscan’s Director of Peptide Discovery Michael Goldflam. “Given Viewpoint’s track-record in translating its two lead products through development to clinic-ready status, we have great confidence that the Viewpoint team will achieve success based on our discovery results.”
This collaborative partnership agreement provides an avenue for both Viewpoint and Pepscan to focus on their world-leading expertise and technologies in order to accelerate the process from discovery phase to clinic-ready radiopharmaceuticals. The terms of the agreement are to remain confidential.
Source: Pepscan (Press release)
Leestip: Universiteit, faciliteer een ondernemend ecosysteem
IJzersterk innovatieklimaat, InnovatieklimaatUniversiteiten zijn een ontmoetingsplek voor ondernemers en investeerders en een veilige haven om te onderzoeken of in je goede idee ook een bedrijfje schuilt. Wat ze echter niet zouden moeten doen is durfinvesteerder spelen voor start-ups, dat is althans de raad die hoogleraar Ondernemerschap en Innovatie Dries Faems de academie meegeeft na een decennium aan het opzetten van accelerators en incubators. Anders gezegd: schoenmaker blijf bij je leest, aldus Faems in een opinie in het FD.
Andere wereld
Een instelling besturen vraagt om een andere strategie dan het leiden van een start-up. Waar het besturen van een instelling vraagt om een risicomijdende aanpak, daar kan een start-up alleen verder komen door een gokje te wagen. Die verschillende werelden laten zich moeilijk met elkaar rijmen. Faems ziet die tegenstelling als een van de oorzaken van de gebrekkige financiering van start-ups. Bij de eerste de beste tegenslag wordt het universiteiten te warm onder de voeten en stoppen zij de financiering. En zonder financiering geen start-up. De meest risicovolle start-ups krijgen daardoor niet de mogelijkheid om door te groeien.
Juist in de kennis- en kapitaalintensieve biotechsector zien we dit terug. Eerder bleek uit onderzoek van HollandBIO dat de groei van innovatieve biotechbedrijven in Nederland sterk achterloopt op andere Europese landen, terwijl we qua kennis en octrooiaanvragen wel tot de Europese top behoren. Dat is zonde, want dat betekent uiteindelijk dat we impact en waarde voor patiënten en consumenten laten liggen.
Faciliteer een ondernemend ecosysteem
Faems ziet tegelijkertijd wel een belangrijke rol voor universiteiten in het stimuleren van start-ups. Ten eerste is de universiteit een ontmoetingsplek voor (would be) ondernemers en financiers. Initiatieven zoals Graduate Entrepeneur in Rotterdam en Delft zijn daar een mooi voorbeeld van. Daarnaast kunnen universiteiten ook een veilige omgeving bieden, waarin je mag vallen en opstaan, waar jonge ondernemers kunnen ontdekken of in hun idee ook een bedrijf zit.
Wij volgen Faems helemaal in deze opvatting. Sterker nog, zijn ideeën komen terug in ons biotech booster Groeifondsvoorstel. Door ideeën verder te brengen in een veilige omgeving en met bedrijfsmatige begeleiding kunnen we meer successen boeken. Daarnaast richt het plan zich op het versterken van het biotech ecosysteem zodat we biotech innovaties tot bloei laten komen. Zo verzilveren we de waarde die biotech te bieden heeft!
Het effect van “Verder met Vaccineren”
Gezondheid op maat, GezondheidWat heeft het “Verder met Vaccineren”-beleid opgebracht? In deze voortgangsbrief belicht staatssecretaris Blokhuis de resultaten. De trendbreuk rond de -voorheen- dalende vaccinatiegraad geeft reden tot feest, al gaat bij HollandBIO de champagne pas écht open als het volgend kabinet doorpakt op de recente adviezen voor een verbeterd Nederlands vaccinatiestelsel.
Staatssecretaris Blokhuis zette zich de afgelopen beleidstermijn samen met “zijn” vaccinatiealliantie en de denktank desinformatie in voor het Nederlandse vaccinatiebeleid. Gewapend met een actieplan is het hem gelukt om de dalende trend in de vaccinatiegraad te keren: een mooi resultaat! Hij stelde daarnaast diverse nieuwe vaccinatieprogramma’s in, waaronder bijvoorbeeld de maternale kinkhoestvaccinatie en een uitbreiding van de HPV-vaccinatie naar jongens. Ook kijkt hij positief aan tegen de invoer van een gordelroosvaccinatie voor ouderen, en was hij eerder positief over de invoer van een rotavirusvaccinatie in risicogroepen, waar recent een aangepast GR-advies over uitkwam.
Tot HollandBIO’s grote genoegen merkte Blokhuis ook op dat het vaak lang duurt voordat nieuwe vaccins een arm bereiken. Diverse vraagstukken over de in- en uitvoer spelen daarbij een rol – en gaven Blokhuis aanleiding een verkenning naar de bestendigheid van het Nederlandse vaccinatiestelsel uit de zetten bij de Raad voor Volksgezondheid en Samenleving. Nu de resultaten van de verkenning, en het advies van het Zorginstituut over de vaccinatiezorg voor medische risicogroepen bekend zijn, laat Blokhuis de broodnodige verbeteringen aan het stelsel aan zijn opvolger over.
Hoewel er onder leiding van Blokhuis mooie stappen gezet zijn, gaat het dak er bij HollandBIO pas echt af als het ons lukt om ook het vaccinatiestelsel duurzaam te verbeteren. Essentieel daarvoor is een overkoepelende visie, met breed gedragen doelen, een bijpassende strategie en een goed gecoördineerde, gezamenlijke uitvoering. Blokhuis laat daarmee een bijzonder relevante en actuele uitdaging achter voor zijn opvolger. Wie pakt de handschoen op?