With expansion a prime focus for businesses worldwide, many are looking towards rapidly establishing new regions of growth, particularly in Asia, Pacifi c Rim countries.
To appear in our next issue, send your Business and Financial News stories to
heather@intlabmate.com The latest business developments from across Europe & Middle East
by Heather Hobbs
This section of International Labmate will especially look at the success of both Asian and European companies with established premises or business partnerships, highlighting the opportunities that exist while realising
potential for other companies to move into export markets.
Acquisition strengthens separation science support
A strategic bringing move bringing Reach Separations, under the umbrella of medicines development partner CatSci, aims to offer end-to-end separation science support from discovery to manufacture. The acquisition was supported by Keensight Capital, one of the leading private equity managers dedicated to pan-European Growth Buyout investments.
Headquartered at Biocity Nottingham and with laboratories in both the UK and France, Reach Separations specialises in chromatography for the analysis and purifi cation of chiral and achiral therapeutics. With capability to deliver purifi cation projects from discovery chromatography through to large scale SFC (Supercritical Fluid Chromatography) for chiral purifi cation and impurity isolation.
This acquisition marks a signifi cant milestone in CatSci’s growth strategy as the company continues to enhance its CMC (Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls) capabilities.
Dr Ross Burn, CEO at CatSci, commented: “We are excited to welcome Reach Separations into the CatSci Group. The need for solving complex analytical problems while meeting the ever-evolving regulatory demands is growing alongside the development of new modalities, such as oligonucleotides, TACs (Targeting Chimeras), and glues. Joining forces with Reach gives our customers access to end-to-end coverage of the analytical development lifecycle, taking them from discovery through to GMP manufacture, and ultimately enabling them to help patients in need.’’
Peter Ridgway, Business Development Director at Reach Separations, added: “Becoming part of the CatSci Group will enhance and strengthen Reach Separations’ ability to deliver excellence in chromatography. Integrating our technologies and expertise across the discovery and development landscape will provide a one-stop-shop for
Cross border collaboration to drive healthtech in Belgium
A strategic partnership between Wallonia’s health cluster BioWin and MEDVIA, the health innovation cluster of Flanders, is set to foster cross-border collaboration, building critical mass and helping to consolidate Belgium’s position in Europe’s healthcare industry.
Ross Burn Peter Ridgway
analysis and purifi cation, giving the client a variety of options to progress the journey of their asset. As one of the founders of Reach Separations, I am delighted to join forces with CatSci to deliver strong growth and expand separation science into new marketplaces.”
James Mitchell, Partner at Keensight Capital, concluded: “We are delighted that Reach Separations has joined the CatSci Group and look forward to continuing to support the company in this next phase of their growth. Having identifi ed CatSci as a company with exceptional potential, unique positioning and strong expertise in the small molecule R&D, we believe that the addition of Reach’s differentiated offering, analytical capabilities and strong employee base will ensure that the combined company is well positioned for future growth in this space.”
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Through this agreement – the fi rst of its kind to be signed between a Walloon and a Flemish cluster – challenges can be assessed jointly and funding streams aligned to create joint projects between key stakeholders in both regions including governments, companies, research institutes and hospitals.
By utilising each other’s strengths, the partnership aims to increase the quality of science across the regions, create jobs and grow company valuations and also attract international investors, while developing drugs and medical devices that have a real and positive impact on patients’ lives.
The agreement highlights several key areas of expertise, including:
Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs)/ bioproduction: Initiatives focusing on this growing sector, including the development of a Belgian ATMP hub and talent development endeavors
Medtech/healthtech: Collaboration on national and international initiatives, joint participation in European projects and facilitating access to fi nancial resources for innovative companies
Partnership to advance understanding of ALS through gene editing platform
The Francis Crick Institute, a world-leading biomedical discovery institute dedicated to understanding the biology underlying health and disease, has partnered with cell and gene therapies developer Broken String Biosciences, to develop novel applications for the company’s proprietary DNA break-mapping platform, INDUCE-seq™, beyond its established capabilities in gene-editing.
The research will be focused on leveraging the technology to investigate the impact of genomic instability in the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This progressive and debilitating neurodegenerative disease, causes gradual loss of the ability to control voluntary movements and basic bodily functions.
The collaboration will combine the interests of Professor Simon Boulton and Dr Nishita Parnandi at the Crick focused on genome stability and DNA double-strand break (DSB), with Professor Rickie Patani and Dr Giulia Tyzack interested in understanding the underlying mechanism of ALS disease mechanism.
The INDUCE-seq platform, a development led by Professor Simon Reed at Broken String, will be assessed and further validated for investigations into the ALS mechanism.
The partnership was secured via the Francis Crick Institute’s Business Engagement Fund, a new initiative supported by The Medical Research Council (MRC-UKRI), that is designed to encourage collaborations with small- to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and strengthen the Crick’s engagement with industry.
Dr Simon Boulton, Principal Group Leader, the Boulton Lab (DSB Repair Metabolism) at the Francis Crick Institute, said: “Our research is focused on exploring how cells repair damage to their DNA, and how failures in this process lead to disease. Following exploratory work with Professor Reed, we were keen to collaborate with Broken String. We are excited to leverage the INDUCE- seq platform’s unique capabilities in directly measuring and quantifying DNA double-strand breaks, and applying this to deepen our understanding of diseases that have genomic instability as a contributing factor, such as ALS.”
Felix Dobbs PhD, CEO, Broken String Biosciences, commented: “This collaboration with the Crick Institute is validation of our differentiated approach to DNA break- mapping; enabling our team to support world-leading research with insights provided through our INDUCE-seq platform. It demonstrates a fantastic opportunity to apply our expertise across other key research areas to support the advancement of human health.” He added: “There is an unmet clinical need for effective ALS treatments, as well as strategies for earlier diagnosis that can signifi cantly improve patient outcomes. We look forward to working closely with Dr Boulton and Professor Patani’s groups to support this critical research area and continue building out our application focuses.”
More information online:
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Research & innovation: Joint calls for projects and optimisation of initiatives with regional and national funding tools to drive research and innovation forward
“We are eager to begin working with BioWin, as collaboration is in the DNA of both of our organisations. We aim to draw on the unique strengths and differences between our regions to complement each other, to the benefi t of the whole ecosystem. Together, we aim to create maximum economic and societal value, as well as solidify Belgium’s reputation as a player to be reckoned with in global health innovation,” said Ann Van Gysel, CEO of MEDVIA.
“This partnership with MEDVIA is an exciting opportunity to demonstrate the power of regional collaboration in fostering innovation in the biotech and healthtech fi eld. Together we can be bolder and address the challenges in our ecosystem. We can leverage our strengths to consolidate Belgium’s position as a leading life sciences hub in Europe and have greater impact internationally to bring the best innovative treatments to as many patients as possible,” said Sylvie Ponchaut, Managing Director of BioWin.
The two clusters started working together in 2023, co- organising several key conferences such as: Science for Health, supported by the HST Group consortium (Health, Science and Technology Group, an alliance of Pfi zer, UCB, GSK and Janssen); and the fi rst HealthTech Investor summit in Bruges, giving 75 pitching entrepreneurs access to more than 60 investors.
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Business
Opportunities
Europe & Middle East
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