News
New Biocat Directory published
The Biocat Directory is a collection of 1,150 profiles providing basic information on all the stakeholders (companies, research groups and centres, science and technology parks, universities, etc) in the biotechnology, biomedicine and medical technology sector in Catalonia. The Biocat Directory was first published in 2007, and can be consulted for free online (in English).
The new directory, which was launched to coincide with the presentation of the 2011 Biocat Report, allows users to search using a number of different classification criteria, including a basic search with the name of the organisation or a key word, or an advanced search, which allows the user to personalise their search by specifying criteria like type of organisation, main activity, application area, therapeutic area, technology or province where the entity is based. For the launch, the beta version of the directory has been made available and will be improved in terms of design and usability over the coming months. Users can send their comments by email to
info@biocat.cat.
In the next phase, the Directory will be extended to cover information on technology platforms in Catalonia. Companies and organisations interested in being listed in the directory or updating their information should contact Biocat. For further information visit
www.biocat.cat
BioWin and Juke Biotech Park form strategic alliance
BioWin, the health competitiveness cluster of Wallonia, Belgium, has formed a partnership agreement with Juke Biotech Park, a new publicly funded science park in
Shanghai, China that hosts more than a hundred Chinese SMEs and research centres specialised in health biotechnologies and medical technologies. Under the agreement, operational infrastructure and facilities will be provided to Laurent Le Guyader, BioWin’s permanent representative in Shanghai as International Relations Manager – China. He reports to Yve van Thorenburg, International Relations Manager – Asia and Frédéric Druck, who heads the BioWin international unit.
Juke Biotech Park has further undertaken to smooth the way for access to the Chinese market for BioWin members. In return, BioWin will ease as far as
Juke Biotech Park, Shanghai, China: new strategic alliance with Wallonia cluster BioWin
possible access for Juke Biotech Park companies to Wallonia as a strategic gateway to the European market.
This agreement is the result of BioWin’s strategy to develop its activities in China, which was first launched in 2009. The agreement was signed in the
course of a recent BioWin and AWEX (Walloon Export and Foreign Investment Agency) mission to the Bio China trade fair
2011.This is the second agreement concluded with a preferred partner on location in Shanghai, which is now a major hub of health care innovation.
Prosensa named Most Innovative European Biotech SME
Dutch biopharmaceutical company Prosensa, which focuses on rare diseases with a high unmet medical need, has won EuropaBio’s Most Innovative European Biotech SME Award 2011, presented at a ceremony in Brussels, Belgium. The award comes with prize money of €10,000 and two years’ membership of EuropaBio.
The EuropaBio Award recognises the company’s pioneering role in helping patients and their families
affected by rare, progressively debilitating diseases. Prosensa’s lead product, PRO051 (GSK2402968), is currently in Phase 3 trials in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). This is a rare, genetic, childhood disease that afflicts about 1 in 3,500 newborn boys. As early as the age of 2, boys begin to show signs of muscle weakness, they are often wheelchair bound before the age of 12 and few live to more than 30 years of age.
Nexxus award for Scottish company combating MRSA
MGB Biopharma Limited, a Glasgow, UK-based
biopharmaceutical company that has developed a new antibiotic treatment for killing and preventing hospital superbugs such as MRSA and Clostridium difficile has been awarded this year’s Nexxus Most Promising Young Life Science Company of the Year Award (West).
Licensing compounds from the
University of Strathclyde, MGB Biopharma has developed a new class of anti-infective medicines based on compounds that are DNA Minor Groove Binders (MGB). It is hoped that these will succeed in the fight against bacteria such as MRSA and C. difficile, where current
antibiotics are no longer proving effective. Director of Nexxus, the networking organisation for
2 Life Science CLUSTERS Supplement
Scotland’s life scientists, Graeme Boyle, commented: “It’s fantastic to see a young Scottish company concentrating on this vital area and employing to such great effect the local compound licensing resource which Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences offers. This pooling of resources is a winning combination, not just for MGB Biopharma but for the
health of the people of Scotland and beyond.”
MGB Biopharma recently achieved preclinical proof of concept for its lead compound MGB BP-3 and as a result has received further financing of £800,000 from its existing investors Archangel Informal Investments Ltd in association with TriCap Ltd and the Scottish Co-investment Fund.
There is currently no available therapy for DMD. Prosensa uses a form of RNA modulation known as ‘exon skipping’, one of the most advanced techniques in modern genetics and molecular biology. The selection process for the award was judged by G. Steven Burrill, Founder and CEO of Burrill & Company; Tom Saylor, CEO of Arecor and Chairman of EuropaBio’s SME Platform; Paul Ruebig, MEP and Chair of the SME Union; and Nathalie Moll, Secretary General of EuropaBio.
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