Picture: Vienna Biocenter

Quantro: Seed capital by Evotec and Boehringer

Germany’s Evotec SE and Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund have acquired equal minority stakes in Quantro Therapeutics GmbH, a recently established research-based biotech company based in Vienna. Evotec also entered into a comprehensive partnership with the Austrian start-up, that strives to discover and develop novel therapeutics interfering with disease-causing transcriptional programmes in cancer and other diseases. The Germans will provide hit identification services for Quantro’s proprietary anti-tumour projects.

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Picture: GBA Group Pharma

Sourcing reference products

A biosimilar is a copy version of an approved, original biological medice whose patent protection has expired. The development strategies for biosimilar product and a new biological entity (NBE) differ in many ways.

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EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides has ordered a study on new genomic techniques that is foreseen for spring 2021. Picture: European Parliament/Oliver Hoslet

European Greens fight over a revision of EU GMO law

An impulse paper of a green splinter group has ignited a storm in the water glass. Like industry and science lobbyists, the renegades are calling for changes to the EU’s legal GMO framework.

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Picture: Nova Biomedical GmbH

BioProfile FLEX2

BioProfile FLEX2 combines Nova’s groundbreaking MicroSensor Card technology with optical measurement and freezing point osmometry for an automated and comprehensive cell culture analyzer that eliminates chemistry sensor maintenance, increases analyzer speed, and reduces sample volume.

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Picture: faCellitate

Go 3D with BIOFLOAT

BIOFLOAT coatings from faCellitate provide a highly defined, fully inert cell- and protein-repellent surface.

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Dual mode of action: APN01 blocks virus entry and the ARDS-associated inflammation. Picture: Apeiron Biologics AG

Targeting coronaviruses

Viennese APEIRON Biologics AG raised €17.5m to expand ongoing Phase II trials of its
coronavirus-specific drug candidate APN01 in Europe to the US and Russia. The recombinant angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (rhACE2) mimics the receptor on the human cells that coronaviruses are using to infect these cell. Preclinical and clinical data demonstrate that APN01 is well-tolerated and can stop the overshooting host immune responses that are triggered by virus proliferation.

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Picture: Cowen, Inc.

The road to recovery goes via vaccines and antibodies

If reopening the economy after the prolonged shutdown was the end of the beginning, then the successful development of vaccines and therapeutic antibodies has the potential to be the beginning of the end.

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Current quantitative COVID-19 antibody tests are often research-only tests. Quantitative assays may inform researchers about the antibody blood level that might be virus-neutralising. Currently it is open if there are virus-neutralising antibody levels in the blood of humans. © Siemens Healthineers

COVID-19: Siemens’ assay outperforms antibody tests from competitors

In a Public England Health study, Siemens Healthineers’ COV2T antibody test was the only assay found to meet both sensitivity and specificity requirements of the MHRA.

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On 9th July a broad coaltion of pharma assocations, pharma CEOs, policy makers and AMR experts launched a new global intiative to fight antbiotic resistance in a virtual event series in Berlin, Washington and Tokyo. © BIOCOM AG

AMR: Big Pharma sets up US$1bn Fund

After leaving the field of antimicrobials 20 years ago because other areas offered better returns, 23 pharma companies and the Novo Foundation have launched a US$1bn fund to fight antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

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VarmX bags €32m in Series B round

Leiden-based coagulant developer VarmX NV has closed a €32m Series B financing to push clinical development of VMX-C001, a venom-based modified recombinant Factor X.

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