Applikon Marks Grand Opening Ceremony
Applikon celebrated the grand opening of its new headquarters in Delft, on Wednesday 4th December with the official ceremony performed by His Majesty King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. The prestigious event was attended by national and international customers, business partners, scientists and the entire Applikon Biotechnology team based in the Netherlands.
The new production facility has been operational for several months and the official opening marked Applikon’s advancement in development and growth. Company owners Arthur Oudshoorn, Jaap Oostra and Erik Kakes, and their
GE Acquires Strategic Assets from TFS
Under a new agreement GE Healthcare is to acquire Thermo Fisher’s HyClone™ cell culture media and sera, and gene modulation and magnetic beads businesses for approximately $1.06 billion.
The acquisition will allow GE
to expand its offering of technologies for the discovery and manufacturing of innovative new medicines, vaccines and diagnostics in its growing life sciences business.
The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is anticipated to close in the first part of 2014.
John Dineen, President and CEO, GE Healthcare said, “life sciences is one of our strongest and fastest-growing business areas, driven by the world’s demand for improved diagnostics and new, safer medicines.
Combining GE’s
engineering expertise with our capabilities in life sciences is already bringing great benefits to industry, research and patients. This deal makes a good business even better and will help us realise our vision of bringing better healthcare to more people at lower cost.”
Kieran Murphy, President and CEO of GE
Healthcare’s Life Sciences division said, “We look forward to the HyClone cell culture and other businesses joining the GE family. They are a great fit with our key areas of focus, and bring exciting new technologies, enhanced manufacturing capabilities as well as a great group of talented people to help grow our business.”
“In addition to providing us with new approaches to drug discovery and biomedical research,” Murphy said, “this acquisition is a significant step forward for our customers in biopharmaceutical manufacturing. They will benefit immediately from an expanded range of “start-to-finish” technologies that will help them improve product yields and reduce time-to-market. By expanding our production facilities to three continents, we will be able to offer the biopharmaceutical industry greater confidence in the security of supply of cell culture media and sera, a key part of their production process.”
The three acquired businesses generated combined annual revenues of approximately $250 million in 2013.
28405pr@reply-direct.com New CEO at TxCell
TxCell SA, a biotechnology company developing personalised cell-based immunotherapies using antigen specific regulatory T-cells (Ag-Tregs) for chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, has recently appointed Damian Marron as CEO while former CEO and Chairman of the Board Francois Meyer becomes Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors. The business targets niche and orphan indications for which there are few or no treatment options and a high unmet medical need.
One of the main initial tasks for Damian as CEO will be to guide the development of Ovasave(R), the company’s lead autologous Ag-Treg cell-based
immunotherapy. Ovasave is currently in phase II development for the treatment of Crohn’s disease in patients who are refractory to current treatments, which estimated to affect 160,000 such patients per year in Europe and in the US alone.
“At this stage of TxCell’s development, it has been critical for us to appoint a CEO who has both a high level of experience at working in niche and orphan market places with unmet medical needs, as well as for both private and public companies,” said Francois Meyer, Executive Chairman of the TxCell Board. “As a result, the Board members and I feel that Damian’s 26 years’ biotechnology
and pharmaceutical experience will make him invaluable to TxCell’s medium and long term development. Damian’s proven management skills allied to his range of experience including financing, corporate development, product and technology licensing, research and development and sales and marketing will be instrumental for our strategy of building a leading cell therapy company with innovative personalised treatments for chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.”
28409pr@reply-direct.com Dr Graeme Hansford
dedicated team are proud and happy with these new premises which house the state-of-the-art
warehouse and production
facilities, R&D laboratory space and offices for approximately 100 employees.
The new facility provides a complete range of bioreactor systems ranging from micro liter research volumes up to 15.000 litre production systems for pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications.
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From left to right: Arthur Oudshoorn – Managing Director, King Willem-Alexander, Erik Kakes – International Sales & Marketing Director, Jaap Oostra – Director Product Development
Anton Paar Acquires CSM Instruments
Measuring instrument manufacturer Anton Parr formerly completed the signing of CSM Instruments at the end of last year. The new subsidiary, CSM Instruments SA | A company of Anton Paar will remain at its present location in Peseux (Switzerland).
CEO Dr Friedrich Santner said: ”We are happy to have successfully concluded the long negotiations. CSM Instruments complements our product portfolio in the field of material characterisation
of surfaces. This market is
becoming increasingly important and is a focus in our strategic approach for the coming years.”
Jacques Francoise, former General Manager of CSM Instruments: “CSM Instruments is a leader in materials testing equipment at the nano-scale and well-located in the heart of the world-renowned Swiss watch industry, a micromechanics excellence centre. A further benefit of the company site in Peseux is its close proximity to universities and research institutes in Neuchâtel. I am proud that an innovative as well as value-oriented high-tech company like Anton Paar has acquired CSM Instruments. Anton Paar, which is known for its strong corporate culture, with an employee-oriented
attitude and its
excellent product portfolio, will consolidate the future of CSM Instruments in the Neuchâtel area on a long-term basis.”
The new General Manager for CSM Instruments is Dr Christoph Ebner Business Development Manager at Anton Paar. In 2012 the subsidiary company had a turnover of €12 millionand currently counts over 60 employees worldwide.
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Prototype Analyser Tests Ground in Mining Applications
Dr Graeme Hansford from the University of Leicester’s Space Research Centre (SRC) has recently started a collaborative project with Bruker Elemental to develop a handheld mineral analyser for mining applications, said to be the first of its kind.
The analyser will combine a novel X-ray diffraction method, invented at the University of Leicester and further developed at the Space Research Centre with X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to identify and quantify the minerals. Expected to weigh just 1.5 kg, the analyser will be capable of producing results within 1-2 minutes and requires no sample preparation.
Dr Hansford said: “It’s very fulfilling for me to see the development of this novel XRD technique from initial conception through theoretical calculations and modelling to experimental demonstration.
“The next step is to develop the commercial potential and I’m very excited to be working with Bruker Elemental on the development of a handheld instrument.”
Alexander Seyfarth, Senior Product Manager at Bruker Elemental, said: “Bruker is excited to be involved in this project as it will bring new measurement capabilities to our handheld equipment. In many cases this system will provide information on the crystallography of the sample in addition to the elemental analysis.”
Dr Hansford originally conceived of the XRD technique in early 2010, when trying to work out how to apply XRD for space applications - for example on the surface of Mars or an asteroid - without the need for any sample preparation.
The next stage of the current project will focus on developing and testing the methodology using samples which are representative of real-world problems encountered in mining, before moving to the stage of developing a prototype handheld device at the SRC in conjunction with Bruker.
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Karus Therapeutics Appoints CMO
Penelope Ward has joined Karus Therapeutics a leader in the development of innovative medicines for the treatment of inflammatory disease and cancer as Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Her appointment strengthens the Company’s expansion which recently saw the formation of a Scientific Advisory Board, appointment of additional R&D personnel and a move to a world-class biotech hub near Oxford.
Dr Ward, who recently took up her new position, is an experienced pharmaceutical physician with previous senior management roles at Pharmacia and Upjohn (Pfizer), UCB and Roche, and was previously CMO of Novimmune SA. Her expertise in designing and implementing clinical development strategies will be important for the role at Karus where she will take responsibility for driving the Company’s HDAC6 and PI3K inhibitor programmes through early human efficacy trials in inflammation and cancer.
In addition, Dr Ward brings with her broad capabilities in commercial licensing negotiations, having previously supported deals for novel research targets to full development candidates. Along with a solid track record in obtaining regulatory approval, Dr Ward is well placed to assist the company in future strategic decision making.
Dr Simon Kerry, Chief Executive of Karus, said: “With the wealth of expertise that Penny brings to the position, we are confident she will be an asset to the team and look forward to working together to further develop and strengthen our proprietary programmes to treat inflammation and cancer.”
Dr Ward, added: “Karus is at a very exciting stage in its development, being well funded by supportive investors and with a great team. I look forward to working with the Board, management and scientists to progress the Company’s assets and realise the potential of its technology.”
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