The latest Business updates from the science industry
by Gwyneth Astles
Bial and Wanbang Announce Exclusive Licensing Agreement for Opicapone in China
Bial and Jiangsu Wanbang Biopharmaceutical Group Co, Ltd, a subsidiary of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co, Ltd have announced that they have entered into an exclusive license agreement for the importation, packaging and commercialisation of Opicapone in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan).
Under the terms of the agreement, Bial will receive from Wanbang an upfront license fee of €2.5 million and up to €12.5 million in further milestones.
Ongentys® (Opicapone) is BIAL’s proprietary once-daily, peripherally-acting, highly-selective catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor (COMT inhibitor) that was approved in June 2016 by the European Commission as an adjunctive therapy to preparations
of levodopa/DOPA decarboxylase inhibitors in adult patients with Parkinson’s disease and end-of-dose motor fl uctuations who cannot be stabilised on those combinations.
“Bial is committed to addressing the needs of patients and healthcare professionals worldwide. This license agreement is a landmark on BIAL’s expanding strategy as it marks the entering of our products in such an important market like China,” said António Portela, Chief Executive Offi cer of Bial. “We are very pleased to work with Wanbang that shares our long-term vision for Ongentys® and are excited to bring this important new treatment option to Chinese Parkinson’s patients.”
“We are pleased to partner with Bial to introduce Opicapone
Quorum Announces New Customer Support and Demonstration Facilities in China
Quorum Technologies continue to expand their network of customer support facilities worldwide. The latest laboratory is located at Nanjing Agricultural University, China, in association with distributors, Nanjing Tansi Technology Company.
Quorum’s dedication to support of their users is further emphasised as they announce new expanded demonstration and support facilities in China and the USA. Managing Director, Tony Larkin, was recently in Nanjing in China to open a new demonstration laboratory at Nanjing Agricultural University in association with distributor partners, the Nanjing Tansi Technology Company. Along with Commercial Director, Robert Hennig, Tony was present as Head of the Laboratory, Professor He, invited colleagues and potential new Chinese customers to see his electron microscope demonstrated with the Quorum PP3010T Cryo-SEM sample preparation system.
Speaking about Tansi’s investment in equipment, Tony said: “I am delighted
with the opportunity to work with Professor He and his team. They will be of tremendous assistance to our Chinese distributors. With access to our cryo- prep and coating systems in Professor He’s laboratory, Tansi are now able to show their customers the latest Quorum technologies.”
Complementing instrumentation and training, Quorum has recently
introduced a revised range of service and maintenance contracts to meet the changing needs of users. This is complemented by Quorum’s Extended Warranty Option of up to three years on nearly all products supplied by the company. Speaking of the Quorum commitment, Technical Director, Duncan Perry, said: “My team of experienced engineers is available to our users worldwide and is supported with a wealth of documentation on our web site where we host our technical briefs, tips, methods, FAQs and general information about the procedures and advantages of different preparation techniques.”
to China for patients with Parkinson’s disease,” said Mr Yifang Wu, Executive Director, President and Chief Executive Offi cer of Fosun Pharma, and Chairman of Wanbang. “We were impressed with the effi cacy, safety and once-daily administration regimen of Opicapone. This collaboration will offer an alternative treatment for the unmet medical needs in China, and enrich the product portfolio of Wanbang and Fosun Pharma in the therapeutic area of CNS diseases, one of our strategic therapeutic areas. We look forward to collaborating with BIAL to import and commercialise Opicapone in China soon.”
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Visitors to Professor He’s laboratory at Nanjing Agricultural University look at the Quorum PP3010T Cryo-SEM sample preparation system mounted on a Hitachi HHT S4100 SEM.
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Kyoto University and Fujitsu Launch Joint Research Project to Advance Medicine through the Use of AI
Kyoto University, Fujitsu Ltd and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd have announced that they have established the Department of Medical Intelligent Systems, a joint research project at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine to use artifi cial intelligence (AI) in the fi eld of medicine. The research activities are being conducted as of January 2018 and will run for approximately two years.
The joint research project will use all types of medical information, including patient data accumulated on electronic medical records collected by Kyoto University Hospital and the Fujitsu Group’s advanced AI technology, Fujitsu Human Centric AI Zinrai. Through collaboration between Kyoto University’s physicians and bioinformatics
researchers and the Fujitsu
Group’s AI engineers, the project will leverage this information and use AI to accelerate R&D toward advanced, next-generation medicine, such as creating new approaches to diagnostic support and drug discovery. Fujitsu and Kyoto University aim to apply the knowledge database platform they’ve developed through their joint research and the insights it elicits to related
fi elds, such as health insurance, and broadly put them to use for the benefi t of society.
To be able to use AI to generate new knowledge and insights, the data will fi rst be preprocessed using AI (natural language processing), and an environment for analysis will be built. Next, with this huge volume of comprehensively sorted data, another form of AI (machine learning) will be used to extract the common characteristics for each disease indication and create models that will contribute to new approaches to diagnostic support, including the identifi cation of specifi c disease characteristics from medical images, and the discovery of next- generation drugs. In addition, research will be conducted on advancing AI technology specifi cally within the fi eld of medicine.
The new knowledge and insights discovered, as well as the AI technology for the medical fi eld, will be comprehensively built onto a platform, leading to the future realisation of a knowledge database that can be widely used in the medical fi eld.
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Coronary Drug-Eluting Stent Receives Market Approval in Japan
Biotronik has announced market approval for its Orsiro coronary drug-eluting stent (Orsiro DES) by the Japanese Ministry of Health. This was supported by the positive 12-month outcomes of the BIOFLOW-IV clinical study which were presented at the 81st Japan Circulation Society congress. The BIOFLOW-IV study is a prospective multi-centre, international randomised controlled trial with a fi ve-year follow-up.
“We are excited to make this innovative product available to Japanese patients together with Japan Lifeline, our distribution partner for Orsiro,” said Jeffrey Annis, Managing Director of Biotronik Japan.
“Japan is one of the most important markets in the world, and gaining access to it is a signifi cant milestone for our DES program, as well as for making this innovative product available globally,” commented Dr Alexander Uhl, Vice President of Marketing at Biotronik Vascular Intervention.
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