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.
Gut/Liver model aims to advance ADME studies
CN Bio and Altis Biosystems, leading developers of in vitro human organ models, are partnering to create a primary human gut/liver
microphysiological system
(MPS) with inter-organ communication to mimic the oral drug administration route. By integrating Altis’ human RepliGut® Planar-Jejunum model and CN Bio’s PhysioMimix® Liver-on-a-chip solution, the partnership is aiming to provide enhanced translation of absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion (ADME) data collected at an earlier stage during the drug discovery and development process.
ADME data can predict how a drug interacts with a patient’s body, helping to optimise drug properties, support candidate selection and inform the design of the clinical phase. However, as many as 5-10% of clinical failures are attributed to issues with pharmacokinetics in drug development. Existing preclinical tools to assess human oral bioavailability are limited; cell culture models are simplistic, whilst interspecies differences limit the translatability of data between animal models and humans.
The RepliGut Planar model uses donor intestinal stem cells sequentially proliferated and differentiated into the key cell types in the human gastrointestinal epithelium to recreate the cellular lifecycle of the intestinal crypt, which can be used for a variety of applications. Interconnection with CN Bio’s primary human Liver-on-a-Chip, will achieve a dual-organ Gut/Liver model representing the next- generation of CN Bio’s oral bioavailability assay, which will enable researchers to maximise the accuracy and predictability of in vitro derived data.
Dr Yassen Abbas, Lead Scientist, CN Bio, said: “At CN Bio, we strive to develop the most predictive and human- relevant assays possible - we recognise Altis is specialised in modeling the intestinal epithelium, so we anticipated working together would provide a unique opportunity. Through this strategic partnership we can capitalise on each other’s strengths to provide the industry with a best- in-class solution to address researchers’ needs – we are excited by its ongoing success.”
Dr Ben Scruggs, CEO, Altis Biosystems, commented: “We are very excited to be embarking on this relationship with CN-Bio. Coming together like this enables researchers to benefi t from decades of organ-specifi c expertise combined into one dual-organ MPS solution. Our collaborative relationship supports Altis’ ongoing mission to develop advanced cell-based models and
Agreement supports small molecule development to combat tumour types
Scottish drug development company Ubiquigent
specialising in harnessing novel deubiquitinase (DUB) modulators as new therapeutics for areas of high unmet medical need, recently signed an agreement with Debiopharm, a biopharmaceutical company at developing treatments to cure cancer and infectious diseases.
Yassan Abbas
Under the terms of the agreement, Ubiquigent will deploy its DUB-focused platform and knowledge in this fi eld to develop novel target engagement assays to support the Swiss organisation’s Debio-0432 candidate.
Currently, in late-stage preclinical development, Debio 0432 is a small molecule with best-in-class potential that could be deployed to combat multiple tumour types. Through its potent and selective inhibition of USP1, a critical player in the DNA damage repair (DDR) pathway, Debio 0432 has the potential
to induce synthetic
lethality in tumour types with underlying defects of DNA repair genes.
“We are Debiopharm, supporting
delighted to enter this the
with agreement development with of its
advanced USP1 inhibitor programme. Following our successful collaborations
other clinical stage Ben Scruggs
assays that bridge the gap between basic research and clinical translation and it’s a great step in our evolution as a company.”
More information online:
ilmt.co/PL/RBwE 62451pr@reply-direct.com
UK invests in climate monitoring projects
The UK Space Agency has invested £9 million into an early- stage technology programme aimed at enhancing the UK’s Earth observation technologies. The funding, delivered by the Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI) will support 12 projects capable of monitoring the Earth’s atmosphere, measuring critical emissions such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen dioxide. This doubles the programme’s previous largest funding round.
Andrew Griffi th MP, Minister for Space at the Department for
Science, Innovation and Technology, said: “This
exciting new generation of satellite instruments, backed by £9 million in government funding, will play a key part in our efforts to tackle climate change, pinpointing where emissions are highest on our planet and cementing UK leadership in Earth observation, while helping to attract more private investment into this fast-growing sector.”
The Earth Explorers programme includes missions such as the European-Japanese Earthcare, focused on improve the reliability of climate predictions and weather forecasts. More than a decade in the making, EarthCARE has signifi cant UK contributions from Airbus Defence & Space UK, Surrey Satellite Technology, Thales Alenia Space UK, RAL Space, Teledyne e2v, GMV-UK, Telespazio UK, CGI UK and several British universities.
Other upcoming missions include Biomass which is being built in the UK by Airbus to provide crucial information about the state of forests and how they are changing. The £9 million CEOI pot will be bolstered with more than £2 million additional funding from the academic and private sectors.
More information online:
ilmt.co/PL/Wlbn 62708pr@reply-direct.com
companies, this latest agreement further demonstrates the capability of Ubiquigent’s platform to address all aspects of DUB drug discovery and development, encompassing target validation, hit-to-lead, candidate selection, translational research, and the development of assays to support clinical evaluation,” Jason Mundin, CEO of Ubiquigent said. “With multiple assets now reaching clinical stage, we look forward to seeing the continued progression and expansion of the DUB fi eld over the coming years as more companies enter the space and new therapeutics enter the clinic.”
Bertrand Ducrey, “Ubiquigent’s CEO, specialised
Debiopharm, commented: drug discovery platform
is uniquely positioned to support our USP1 inhibitor programme as it approaches the clinic, enabling the development of novel target engagement assays. Selective inhibition of USP1 to interrupt DNA damage repair pathway is an exciting approach to cancer treatment.”
More information online:
ilmt.co/PL/eNDQ 62709pr@reply-direct.com
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Business
Opportunities
Europe & Middle East
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